拜登告诉以色列内塔尼亚胡,美国未来对战争的支持取决于保护平民的新措施
【中美创新时报2024 年 4 月 4 日据美联社讯】(记者温友平编译)美国总统乔·拜登周四告诉以色列总理本杰明·内塔尼亚胡,美国未来对加沙战争的支持取决于保护平民和援助人员的新措施。
拜登和内塔尼亚胡在以色列空袭导致加沙七名粮食援助人员死亡几天后进行了电话交谈,并为两国领导人日益紧张的关系增添了新的复杂性。
“他明确表示,以色列需要宣布并实施一系列具体、具体和可衡量的措施,以解决平民伤害、人道主义苦难和援助人员的安全问题,”白宫在领导人通话后发表的一份声明中表示。 “他明确表示,美国对加沙的政策将取决于我们对以色列立即采取这些步骤行动的评估。”
据白宫称,民主党人拜登还告诉内塔尼亚胡,“立即停火至关重要”,并敦促以色列“立即”达成协议。
领导人对话之际,餐馆老板何塞·安德烈斯创立的世界中央厨房 (World Central Kitchen) 呼吁对以色列袭击事件进行独立调查,该袭击导致该组织的工作人员死亡,其中包括一名美国公民。
白宫表示,美国没有计划进行自己的调查,尽管他们呼吁以色列采取更多措施,防止在加沙开展行动时杀害和伤害无辜平民和援助人员。
另外,国务卿安东尼·布林肯在布鲁塞尔对记者表示,如果以色列不对其战争方式进行重大调整,美国的支持将会减少。 “如果我们看不到我们需要看到的变化,我们的政策就会发生变化,”他说。
预计拜登还将重申他对内塔尼亚胡计划在南部城市拉法开展行动的担忧,拉法是大约 150 万流离失所的巴勒斯坦人的避难所,以色列希望在哈马斯 10 月 7 日发动致命袭击后消灭哈马斯。 副总统卡马拉·哈里斯也加入了电话会议。
尽管分歧日益扩大,拜登政府仍在快速推进向以色列的武器转让和交付,其中许多武器多年前就已获得批准,但仅部分或根本未履行。 就在本周一,民主党政府的军火转让“每日清单”包括向以色列出售超过 1,000 枚 500 磅(225 公斤)炸弹和超过 1,000 枚 1,000 磅(450 公斤)炸弹。
官员们表示,这些转移在周一公布名单之前就已获得批准——当天以色列空袭了加沙的世界中央厨房援助车队,导致该组织的七名员工死亡——而且这些转移已低于新的国会通知的门槛。 此外,他们还指出,这些炸弹要到 2025 年才会交付给以色列。
以色列承认对此次袭击负责,但表示车队不是袭击目标,工人的死亡也不是故意的。 该国正在继续调查与杀戮有关的情况。
安德烈斯严厉批评以色列军方的这次袭击,他的组织已暂停在加沙的工作。
“以色列政府需要停止这种不分青红皂白的杀戮。 它需要停止限制人道主义援助,停止杀害平民和援助人员,停止使用食物作为武器,”他在 X 上写道。“不再有无辜者丧生。”
加沙战争始于哈马斯领导的武装分子冲进以色列南部,造成约 1,200 人死亡,其中大部分是平民,并劫持了约 250 人作为人质。
专家表示,以色列在加沙的军事行动是近代历史上最致命、最具破坏性的行动之一。 研究人员表示,两个月内,这次攻势造成的破坏已经超过了 2012 年至 2016 年期间叙利亚阿勒颇被夷为平地、乌克兰马里乌波尔,或者二战中盟军轰炸德国所造成的破坏。 它杀死的平民比美国领导的联军在针对伊斯兰国组织的三年行动中杀死的平民还要多。
题图:2024 年 4 月 3 日,拜登总统在华盛顿特区白宫印度条约室谈到降低医疗保健费用。(Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)JIM WATSON/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
附原英文报道:
Biden tells Israel’s Netanyahu future US support for war depends on new steps to protect civilians
By The Associated Press The Associated Press,Updated April 4, 2024,
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that future U.S. support for the Gaza war depends on new steps to protect civilians and aid workers.
Biden and Netanyahu spoke by phone days after Israeli airstrikes killed seven food aid workers in Gaza and added a new layer of complication in the leaders’ increasingly strained relationship.
“He made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers,” the White House said in a statement following the leaders call. “He made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps.”
Biden, a Democrat, also told Netanyahu that an “immediate ceasefire is essential” and urged Israel to reach deal “without delay,” according to the White House.
The leaders conversation comes as the World Central Kitchen, founded by restauranteur José Andrés to provide immediate food relief to disaster-stricken areas, called for an independent investigation into the Israeli strikes that killed the group’s staff members, including an American citizen.
The White House has said the U.S. has no plans to conduct its own investigation even as they called on Israel to do more to prevent the killing and wounding innocent civilians and aid workers as it carries out its operations in Gaza.
Separately, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Brussels that U.S. support would be curtailed if Israel doesn’t make significant adjustments to how it’s carrying out the war. “If we don’t see the changes that we need to see, there will be changes in our policy,” he said.
Biden was also expected to reiterate his concerns about Netanyahu’s plan to carry out an operation in the southern city of Rafah, where about 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, as Israel looks to eliminate Hamas following the militant group’s deadly Oct. 7 attack. Vice President Kamala Harris also joined the call.
Despite the growing divisions, the Biden administration has proceeded apace with arms transfers and deliveries to Israel, many of which were approved years ago but had only been partially or not at all fulfilled. Just this week, on Monday, the Democratic administration’s “Daily List” of munitions transfers included the sale to Israel of more than 1,000 500-pound (225-kilograms) bombs and more than 1,000 1,000-pound (450-kilogram) bombs.
Officials said those transfers had been approved before the publication of the list on Monday — the day Israeli airstrikes hit a World Central Kitchen aid convoy in Gaza, killing seven of the group’s employees — and that they fell below the threshold for new congressional notification. Also, they noted that the bombs are not for delivery to Israel until 2025.
Israel has acknowledged responsibility for the strikes but said the convoy was not targeted and the workers’ deaths were not intentional. The country continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding the killings.
Andrés harshly criticized the Israeli military for the strike, and his organization has paused its work in Gaza.
“The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing. It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon,” he wrote on X. “No more innocent lives lost.”
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage.
The Israeli military campaign in Gaza, experts say, sits among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history. Within two months, researchers say, the offensive already had wreaked more destruction than the razing of Syria’s Aleppo between 2012 and 2016, Ukraine’s Mariupol or, proportionally, the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II. It has killed more civilians than the U.S.-led coalition did in its three-year campaign against the Islamic State group.