Israel-Hamas war: US bombs have killed Palestinians — Biden

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday said Palestinian civilians had been killed by bombs that the United States has supplied to Israel.

"Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers," he said in an interview with broadcaster CNN.

Biden said the United States was still committed to Israel's defense and would supply Iron Dome rocket interceptors.

However, the US would draw a line if Israel goes into Rafah. "We're not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used, that have been used."

The US has repeatedly urged Israel not to go ahead with the offensive in the southern Gazan city.

Earlier this week, Israel's leadership approved a military operation in Rafah, where more than 1.2 million Palestinians have been sheltering.

The Israeli military has been striking Hamas targets in eastern parts of the city after issuing evacuation orders to thousands of the city's residents.

Police moved to clear barricades and encampments set up by pro-Palestinian protesters in Washington, DC, and Amsterdam on Wednesday.

In the US capital, police deployed pepper spray as they forcibly cleared an encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters at George Washington University overnight, arresting 33 people for "unlawful entry" onto the premises and "assault on a police officer."

The move came after Republican lawmakers in Congress had pressured local authorities to act, summoning Washington's mayor and police chief to testify in the House of Representatives later on Wednesday.

Police had initially declined requests from the university to disband the encampment, citing worries about moving in against peaceful protesters, according to The Washington Post.

On Wednesday, however, the police department said that, despite trying to "deescalate tensions" without arrests, there had been "a gradual escalation in the volatility of the protest."

Meanwhile, similar scenes were unfolding in the Netherlands as riot police wielded batons as they moved in to clear barricades set up by pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Amsterdam.

"Police are starting to clear the barricades that have been set up on the terrain," Amsterdam police said on X, formerly Twitter. "The operation has been authorized by the mayor," they added, after the university leveled charges including disturbing the peace and destruction of property.

Police have arrested about 140 people since the protests at the university started on Monday. Students are demanding that the organization sever ties with Israel over its military campaign in Gaza.

At least 36 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks and ongoing fighting in and around the southern Gazan city of Rafah in the past 24 hours, according to the local Kuwait Hospital.

The hospital said children were among the dead after their house was hit by an Israeli airstrike.

A further 19 people have been killed across the rest of the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, bringing the total Palestinian death toll since the start of the current conflict to 34,844.

The Hamas figures, while generally considered by international observers to be accurate, do not distinguish between civilians and militants and cannot be independently verified. The ministry estimates that roughly one-third of the people killed in Gaza have been children.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that several Hamas militants had been killed in various skirmishes in Rafah, where eyewitnesses reported ongoing Israeli attacks to the dpa news agency.

Meanwhile, Rafah's main maternity hospital has stopped admitting patients, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said on Wednesday.

The UNFPA told the Reuters news agency that the Emirati Maternity Hospital had been handling about 85 births per day – almost half of total daily births across Gaza — prior to the escalation in fighting between Hamas and the IDF outside Rafah.

A humanitarian worker in Rafah has reported hearing massive explosions, air strikes and gunfire after the Israeli army launched an assault on the city.

"We have been witnessing ...  after the Israeli military started ground operations in the eastern part of the city, massive explosions, exchange of fire that are sounding from the eastern side of the city, but also airstrikes in different areas across the entire Rafah governorate, where over 1 million people are crammed," Hisham Mhanna, a worker with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Rafah, told DW.

"We have also been witnessing large waves of displacement people fleeing from the eastern side of the city, the areas that received the evacuation notes, carrying whatever they could carry quickly, moving in cars and other vehicles and even carts dragged by donkeys, and many others were walking on foot carrying heavy backpacks," Mhanna said. "Children, women, elderly of all ages are now forced to evacuate towards no clear destination."

Mhanna said the the ICRC continued to support what remains of the health care system and provide hot meals to thousands of people.

But this is not enough to help Palestinian civilians who are trapped in the besieged territory, he added.

"We're trying to maximize our humanitarian response," Mhanna said. "We're trying to reach as many people who are in need as possible. However, this remains a drop in the ocean if the hostilities continue, because, as long as there is exchange of fighting, this translates into greater needs that will definitely be unmet."

"The challenges are vast," Mhanna said. "First, there is no security guarantees for our movements. The aid that has been significantly increased to enter Gaza over the past weeks needs to change into a robust flow of aid unimpeded, absolutely safely, so that we as humanitarians can carry it to the hundreds of thousands of people who are in desperate need across the Gaza Strip."

At least 34,844 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the war began on October 7, according to figures released by the Hamas-run Health Ministry on Wednesday.

The latest death toll includes at least 55 people who died in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, 78,404 people have been injured during Israel's military offensive, the ministry added.

The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but around two-thirds of the dead are believed to be women and children.

Russia said on Wednesday that Israel's offensive in Rafah has escalated the war in Gaza.

"An additional destabilizing factor, including for the entire region, was the launch of an Israeli military ground operation in Rafah," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters.

"About one and a half million Palestinian civilians are concentrated there. In this regard, we demand strict compliance with the provisions of international humanitarian law."

Zakharova also expressed pessimism about broader efforts to secure lasting peace in the Middle East.

"I would like to call it a settlement, but, alas, it is far from a settlement," she said.

"There are no prospects for resolving the situation in the Gaza Strip. On the contrary, the situation in the conflict zone is escalating daily."

Her comments came as talks aimed at securing a cease-fire resumed in Cairo. 

Qatar has condemned Israel's military offensive in Rafah and called on the international community to prevent a "genocide,"a term Israel has rejected.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Gulf state called for "urgent international action to prevent the city from being invaded and a crime of genocide being committed."

Since the October 7 Hamas terror attack, Qatar has acted as a key mediator between Israel and the Palestinian militant group, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the US, the EU, Germany and others.

Qatar, along with Egypt and the US, is also involved in ongoing talks in Cairo for a cease-fire deal.

The Biden administration is set to miss a Wednesday deadline to deliver a report into whether Israel has violated international law in Gaza.

The National Security Memorandum, known as NSM-20, will look at whether Israel has used US-supplied weapons in a lawful manner.

It will also look at whether Israel has acted to "arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise impede, directly or indirectly," delivery of any US-supported humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Four sources told news agency Reuters that the Biden administration had informed congressional committees that it would not make the deadline.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Tuesday that the department was trying to meet the deadline for completing the review, but "it's possible it slips just a little bit."

The Israeli military said it reopened the Kerem Shalom border crossing in the south of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.

"Trucks from Egypt carrying humanitarian aid, including food, water, shelter equipment, medicine and medical equipment donated by the international community, are already arriving at the crossing," the army said in a joint statement with COGAT, the Defense Ministry body that oversees Palestinian civil affairs.

It added that the supplies would be transferred to the Gaza side of the crossing after undergoing inspection.

The border crossing was closed on Sunday after a Hamas rocket attack killed four Israeli soldiers in the area.

Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the US, EU, Israel and others.

On Tuesday, Israeli troops took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

A White House spokesperson has expressed guarded optimism that Israel and Hamas "should be able to close the remaining gaps" of a cease-fire deal that would lead to the release of hostages.

"Hamas responded ... and there were amendments offered," White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.

"Again, that's the task of negotiating. That's what negotiations are all about. It's our understanding from looking at the text that we feel it suggests that we should be able to close these gaps."

Separately, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in Washington that the draft under discussion was an offer made at the end of April.

"That's the offer that was on the table," he said. 

"Hamas seemed to make clear ... in their public statements that they accepted that offer yesterday (Monday). That is not what they did. They responded with amendments — call it a counter proposal if you want — and we're working through the details of that now."

The US paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that they could be used in an assault on the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, according to a senior Biden administration official.

The official said the administration "began to carefully review proposed transfers of particular weapons to Israel that might be used in Rafah" beginning in April.

"As a result of that review, we have paused one shipment of weapons last week," the official told reporters.

These weapons consisted of 1,800 bombs with a nominal weight of 2,000 lbs (900 kilograms) and 1,700 bombs with a nominal weight of 500 lbs (225 kilograms).

It marks the first time the US has acted on a warning that President Joe Biden made to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month that US policy on Gaza would depend on how Israel treated civilians.

More than 1 million Palestinian civilians have sought shelter in Rafah after evacuating from other parts of the Gaza Strip amid Israel's military offensive. Israel launched its assault on Gaza in response to the October 7 terror attack by Hamas militants.

"We are especially focused on the end-use of the 2,000-lb bombs and the impact they could have in dense urban settings as we have seen in other parts of Gaza," the official said.

"We have not made a final determination on how to proceed with this shipment," they added.

zc/nm (AP, Reuters, AFP, dpa)