CNN
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President Joe Biden spoke on Tuesday, rarely speaking, as anger and outrage erupted within the White House after Israel’s attack on Gaza killed seven aid workers from the nonprofit organization World Central Kitchen. He issued an official statement using words he had never used before. “Outraged” about a conflict filled with endless tragedies.
The deaths of workers, including one dual U.S.-Canadian citizen, trying to deliver food to starving civilians in the besieged enclave take Biden and his top officials to a new level of frustration. A senior government official told CNN.
President Biden’s statement Tuesday night mourning the deaths of the seven workers included some of the president’s fiercest and most frank words since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October. He specifically criticized Israel for failing to protect aid workers and civilians, saying: “An incident like yesterday should never have happened.”
The strike against World Central Kitchen workers was a “standout incident” for President Biden, officials said, and caused serious surprise and concern in a situation that was already fraught with tensions between the United States and Israel. Ta.
But the administration on Wednesday reiterated its support for Israel’s war against Hamas and warned that it was not doing enough to protect civilians in Palestinian enclaves.
“Of course we want to see them do things differently to prevent civilian casualties. Absolutely. And that’s what we’ve been doing with them for months. “This is an ongoing conversation,” said John Kirby, White House National Security Council spokesman. “In terms of being more precise, more targeted, more deliberate.”
He continued: “We’re trying to figure out how to do things differently, how to do things more efficiently, how to do things more securely, and certainly how to do things with the least amount of damage to civilian infrastructure. We’ve been talking to them and we’ll continue to talk to them about how to do that, and of course civilian lives.”
The president discussed the worker’s death with a small group of Muslim community leaders at the White House on Tuesday, according to one of the attendees. Among the participants was a doctor who had spent time in Gaza and had seen firsthand the plight of Palestinian civilians there. One of them left the meeting early in protest, CNN reported.
“The president has expressed that this is a very difficult situation and he wants to see an end to this war,” said Salima Suswell, founder of the Black Muslim Leadership Council. “There were times when it became difficult to have a conversation.”
“That’s what he meant,” a senior presidential adviser told CNN when asked about Biden’s statement accusing Israel of failing to protect civilians and aid workers.
Israel has announced an investigation into why an aid worker’s vehicle was hit by an Israeli airstrike, and Biden called for the probe to be “swift” and “accurate for accountability.”
Asked by CNN whether the White House still supports the way Israel is waging the war, given the deaths of aid workers and the outrage from Biden, Kirby said the administration has made no secret of its opposition. However, he said he would not withdraw. That support.
“Let me be clear: While we have issues with aspects of the way the operation was conducted, we do not support the ground operation in Rafah, especially as we have said openly and publicly. We also continue to believe and act on Israel’s right to protect itself from the ever-present threat of Hamas,” Kirby said.
