Jerusalem:

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations expressed disappointment Thursday at US President Joe Biden’s threat to stop certain arms supplies to Israel if it invades the crowded Gaza city of Rafah.

“This is a difficult and very disappointing statement to hear from a president to whom we have been grateful since the beginning of the war,” Gilad Erdan told Israeli public broadcaster Kan radio, in Israel’s first reaction to Biden’s warning.

Israel has defied international objections by sending in tanks and conducting “targeted raids” in the border city, which it says is home to Hamas’s last remaining battalions — but is also crowded with displaced Palestinian civilians.

“If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used… to deal with the cities,” Biden said in an interview with CNN, in his starkest warning to Israel since the start of the war. 

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs,” Biden said. “It’s just wrong.”

Erdan responded that Biden’s comments would be interpreted by Israel’s foes Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah as “something that gives them hope to succeed”.

“If Israel is restricted from entering an area as important and central as Rafah where there are thousands of terrorists, hostages and leaders of Hamas, how exactly are we supposed to achieve our goals?” he said.

“This is not a defensive weapon. This is about certain offensive bombs. In the end the State of Israel will have to do what it thinks needs to be done for the security of its citizens.”

AFP journalists reported heavy shelling in Rafah early Thursday, and the Israeli military later said it was also striking “Hamas positions” further north in the centre of the Gaza Strip.

On Tuesday, Israeli forces seized Rafah’s border crossing into Egypt, which has served the main entry point for aid into besieged Gaza.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Israel’s United Nations ambassador displayed a yellow star on his chest Monday as he addressed the Security Council, provocatively pledging to wear the badge until members of the body condemn Hamas “atrocities.”

“Some of you have learned nothing in the past 80 years. Some of you have forgotten why this body was established,” envoy Gilad Erdan said, as he denounced the Security Council for “staying silent” over the unprecedented deadly attacks by Hamas operatives against Israel on October 7.

The deeply divided 15-member council has not adopted a single resolution on the three-week-long war between Israel and Hamas.

“So, I will remind you. From this day on, each time you look at me you will remember what staying silent in the face of evil means,” the ambassador said.

“Just like my grandparents, and the grandparents of millions of Jews, from now on my team and I will wear yellow stars,” he said, standing up to affix one on the breast of his suit inscribed with the words “Never Again,” in reference to the yellow stars Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis.

But Erdan will wear it “as a symbol of pride,” he said.

“We will wear this star until you wake up and condemn the atrocities of Hamas.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the October 7 attacks the worst against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

For weeks the Security Council has been riven by divisions over the war and its impact, rejecting four draft resolutions about the conflict.

Some texts were blocked by the United States, a close Israel ally, because they did not mention Israel’s right to defend itself.

Another presented by the Americans was stymied by Russia and China in particular because it did not clearly call for a ceasefire.

In light of the impasse, the UN General Assembly last Friday adopted by a large majority a nonbinding resolution requesting an “immediate humanitarian truce,” but not mentioning Hamas. 

Israel, through Erdan, blasted the text, saying it will “go down as infamy.”

During Monday’s Security Council meeting, several speakers, while denouncing the Hamas attacks, highlighted the price paid by inhabitants of Gaza, where health officials say more than 8,300 people have been killed in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, said the siege of Gaza amounts to collective punishment of its residents.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)