When Joe Biden threatened to halt the US military’s supply to Israel while it fights the Palestinian militant group in Gaza on Thursday, 9 May 2024, Donald Trump accused him of supporting Hamas. He referred to the President’s position as “disgraceful.”

In his most forthright warning to date over the effects of the war on civilians, Biden threatened on Wednesday, 8 May 2024, to stop supplying weapons if Israel continued with its long-threatening Rafah ground offensive.

Referring to the anti-war demonstrations that have swept through US Colleges, Trump said on his Truth Social network, “Crooked Joe is taking the side of these terrorists, just like he has sided with the Radical Mobs taking over our college campuses.”

Before starting his hush money trial in New York, Trump made a statement to the media outside the courtroom, stating that “what Biden is doing concerning Israel is disgraceful.”

In the past, his government has also taken more modest actions to express its disapproval of Israel, such as sanctioning radical settlers and approving a UN Security Council resolution in favour of a ceasefire.

According to an AFP count of Israeli official estimates, more than 1,170 persons died as a result of Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, most of them civilians. This marked the start of the Gaza conflict.

Israel retaliated by vowing to destroy Hamas and release the prisoners. The Health Ministry of the Hamas-run enclave in Gaza reports that since the military offensive began, over 3,900 individuals have died, most were women and children. AFP

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