Two Statistics, One Interview Clip, And Two Key Biden Quotes On Gaza
These details show key dynamics in the Israeli invasion.
Welcome to the second issue of “Gathering String,” my anti-social-media reporting project. I’m using this platform to collect compelling details from the news. My first issue was on Gaza, and so is this one, mostly.
If you’d like a much fuller understanding of the situation, stop now and go to the author pages of three of my colleagues: Sanjana Karanth, Rowaida Abdelaziz, and Akbar Shahid Ahmed, particularly Akbar’s two most recent reports. Read their work and I guarantee you’ll be more informed than every general-interest political pundit on TV.
With that said:
Two Stunning Statistics On Gaza Right Now
“The Ukrainian front line is about six hundred miles long, and in Gaza the front line is twenty-five miles long. According to estimates by [the United Nations Environment Programme] and U.N.-Habitat, there’s more rubble—thirty-seven million tons—in Gaza than in Ukraine.” – The New Yorker, “Gaza’s Unexploded-Bomb Crisis” (May 8, 2024)
“About 78,000 children [in Rafah] are infants under 2 years of age.” – UNICEF, “There is ‘nowhere safe to go’ for the 600,000 children of Rafah, warns UNICEF.” (May 6, 2024). I first saw this statistic in Akbar’s HuffPost report.
TV interview clip of the week goes to... Piers Morgan?
Yes, Morgan showed admirable persistence in his questioning of an Israeli government spokesperson, who either refused to provide, or did not know, the civilian death toll of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza – despite supposedly knowing the combatant death toll:
Two Key Biden Quotes On Gaza
There’s no sign right now that the Israeli invasion of Gaza is close to stopping, despite around 35,000 Palestinians killed and around 1,200 Israelis killed on Oct. 7 and among those taken hostage into Gaza. But Joe Biden has muddied the water recently in two key ways:
First,
In a CNN interview aired Wednesday, the president said “I made it clear that if they go into Rafah — they haven’t gone into Rafah yet — if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, to deal with that– problem.” Except, as my colleague Sanjana Karanth reported, even at the time, “satellite images that CNN obtained from Planet Labs show that Israel has expanded its assault on Rafah from airstrikes to a ground offensive as of this week.”
What’s more, Israeli forces have taken control of the border crossing between Rafah and Egypt and closed it. Combined with the lack of clean drinking water, “the situation for infants is horrific,” Alexandra Saieh, head of humanitarian advocacy and policy for Save the Children International, said Wednesday, according to ABC News. “We were told by doctors at the hospital, basically when they discharge [a] mother and [a] child, they go back to the shelter and, many times, the infant will die because they're not getting the sufficient nutrients and mothers are not getting the sufficient nutrients to breastfeed. So, the situation for infants is catastrophic."
Tens of thousands of Gazans have reportedly fled Rafah amid the chaos and supply shortages in the city, though as my colleague Akbar Shahid Ahmed reported, they have few if any better options elsewhere in the Strip.
What’s the White House’s response to all this? Basically, they assert that what we’ve seen doesn’t count as “going into” Rafah.
“As the President said, Israel has not yet launched such an operation,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Thursday, referring to the phrase “a major ground operation.” “So, he was talking about what would happen in the future if they did. That’s a choice that Israel will have to make, and it’s one we hope they don’t.” On Friday, Kirby said that what we’ve seen so far is actually a “limited operation.”
This is an example of the White House using fuzzy wording around a key issue, all while the killing in Rafah continues. On Tuesday, anonymous U.S. sources told Axios: Two U.S. officials said Biden doesn't see the current Israeli operation as ‘a breaking point’ in relations with Israel [...] One U.S. official said Biden is approaching this the same way he approached the Israeli retaliation against the Iran attack — pressing Israel not to do it, then accepting something limited.
That doesn’t sound like a red line to me. More like a fuzzy beige line that can be erased and re-drawn.
Second,
At a fundraiser Saturday, Biden said, “There would be a ceasefire tomorrow if Hamas released the hostages,” according to a widely-reported transcript of his remarks. But either there has been a dramatic change in the Israeli position, or Biden misspoke, or he’s referring to some sort of temporary cease-fire, or he is lying.
Why? Because Israel has rejected this deal, saying it will continue fighting until Hamas itself is destroyed.
Before going on, it’s important to note: Most of the hostages remaining in Gaza are likely dead. On this front, the bottom line is that “Taking hostages and executing hostages are acts that are strictly prohibited by various international conventions.” Those responsible include Hamas militants, Hamas leaders, and other Palestinian militants who took their own hostages on Oct. 7.
With that said, according to the Associated Press, Hamas recently accepted a cease-fire deal, one that Israel rejected, after seeking “guarantees for its key demand of an end to the war and complete Israeli withdrawal in return for the release of all hostages.” The AP report added that Israeli leaders have repeatedly rejected that deal, “vowing to keep up their campaign until Hamas is destroyed after its Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war.” (Emphasis mine.)
Al Jazeera – which was recently shut down in Israel – has more details from the actual ceasefire document that Hamas agreed to, which laid out a series of stages for both sides. As Netanyahu himself said Tuesday, “Israel will not allow Hamas to restore its regime of evil in the strip. Israel will not allow it to rebuild its military capabilities.” This is much different than Biden’s comment.
And for months, other reports have shed light on Netanyahu’s apparent resistance to hostage deals that don’t include the elimination or complete surrender of Hamas. I’m not making a judgment on that position, but rather, pointing out that Biden’s comment isn’t accurate. Listen to what the former spokesperson for the non-governmental group representing Israeli hostages’ families told the Times of Israel last month, recalling a meeting between the families and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in late October (emphasis added):
“We left the meeting very disappointed because Netanyahu talked about dismantling Hamas as the goal of the war. He didn’t promise anything regarding the demand to return the hostages. He merely said a military operation in Gaza was needed to serve as leverage for the hostages’ release ... We later found out that Hamas had offered on October 9 or 10 to release all the civilian hostages in exchange for the IDF not entering the Strip, but the government rejected the offer.”
In January, Netanyahu said a “decisive victory” would include two things: “the elimination of Hamas [and] the return of our hostages.” In February, The New York Times reported, in the paper’s words, “Hamas’s political leaders have insisted, at least publicly, that any deal to release the more than 100 hostages still being held in Gaza is dependent on a permanent cease-fire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops. Israel has said it will not compromise on its goal of toppling Hamas in Gaza, suggesting it will not agree to a long-term truce.”
As Reuters reported Friday, “Israel has said it is open to a truce, but has rejected demands for an end to the war.” And as the Times of Israel wrote Friday, “Israel has consistently said it will not accept a deal that entails a permanent ceasefire, and that it will resume its military campaign after any truce-for-hostages deal in order to complete its two declared war goals: freeing the hostages and destroying Hamas’s military and governance capabilities.”
In Israel, anger at Netanyahu has repeatedly boiled over into public protests. Israelis, including the families of hostages, have tried for months to pressure the government to negotiate a hostage deal, even without Netanyahu’s stated goal of completely eradicating Hamas from Gaza.
What I’ve written
Live coverage of Week 3 and Week 4 of Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial in the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse.
Side note: I could have written an entire newsletter on the mind-bending reality of being within whispering distance of Donald Trump as he appeared as a criminal defendant in a nondescript Manhattan courtroom. It was bizarre. I saw the individual pores on Trump’s nose and, from my aisle seat, briefly made eye contact with him as he walked in and out of the courtroom. I still cannot wrap my head around the fact that the former and potentially future president is in that situation, but seeing everything in person really cemented how surreal the whole thing is. If you’d like to hear more, let me know here.
Nearly Two-Thirds Of Election Officials Worry Politicians Will Interfere With Their Work: Poll (May 1, 2024)
National College Democrats Slam Biden On Gaza And Back Campus Protesters (May 1, 2024)
Cousin Of Extremist Rabbi Charged With Driving Car Into Pro-Palestinian Protesters (May 8, 2024)
What I’m reading
ReliefWeb, “Verification of damages to schools based on proximity to damaged sites - Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territory” (April 25, 2024)
DevEx, “Exclusive: USAID officials say Israel breached US directive on Gaza aid” (April 26, 2024)
American Association of University Professors, "In defense of the right ot free speech and peaceful protest on the university campus." (April 26, 2024)
Washington Post, “Journalism professors call on New York Times to review Oct. 7 report” (April 29, 2024)
Reuters, “Exclusive: Gaza hospital staff questioned by ICC war crimes prosecutors” (April 30, 2024)
Austin American-Statesman, “Two new misdemeanor charges filed for Fox 7 Austin photojournalist covering UT protests” (April 30, 2024)
HuffPost, “Border Patrol Agents Joked About Killing Migrant Children, Records Show” (April 30, 2024)
Associated Press, “A retired teacher saw inspiration in Columbia’s protests. Eric Adams called her an outside agitator” (May 1, 2024)
404Media, “Bike Lock NYPD Insists Is 'Industrial' Protest Tool Is a Normal Lock Recommended by Columbia University” (May 1, 2024)
Los Angeles Times, “Four UCLA student journalists attacked by pro-Israel counterprotesters on campus” (May 1, 2024)
HuffPost, “Inside UCLA's Palestinian Solidarity Encampment — Before Police Tore It Apart” (May 2, 2024)
Associated Press, “Israel orders Al Jazeera to close its local operation and seizes some of its equipment” (May 5, 2024)
Associated Press, “Hamas accepts Gaza cease-fire; Israel says it will continue talks but presses on with Rafah attacks” (May 6, 2024)
The Intercept, “600,000 Palestinian kids in Rafah Can’t ‘Evacuate’ Safely, UNICEF Official Says” (May 8, 2024)
HuffPost, “There's A GOP Plan For An Execution Spree If Trump Wins The White House” (May 9, 2024)
CNN, “Strapped down, blindfolded, held in diapers: Israeli whistleblowers detail abuse of Palestinians in shadowy detention center” (May 11, 2024)
New York Times, “A Brief History of the 2,000-Pound Bombs Central to U.S.-Israeli Tensions” (May 11, 2024)
What I’m watching
Freelance Solidarity Project, “Journalism Futures: The Fight Ahead” (April 16, 2024)
Sen. Mitt Romney, speaking to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, discusses why he thinks pro-Palestinian content is part of the reason Tik Tok should be banned. Video, transcript (May 3, 2024)
Video of demonstrations on the Manhattan Bridge, at Washington University in St. Louis and UCLA, and in Israel.
CNN, “Israeli precision-guided munition likely killed group of children playing foosball in Gaza, weapons experts say” (May 3, 2024)
CNN, interview with Jehad Abusalim on the destruction of Palestinian cultural heritage (May 6, 2024)
UNRWA Commissioner Philippe Lazzarini, details on an arson attack at UNRWA headquarters in East Jerusalem (May 9, 2024)
What I’m listening to
On The Media, What the Media Get Wrong About Campus Protests (May 10, 2024)
And, congratulations to one of my favorite New York City bands, YouBet, on the release this week of their incredible album, “Way To Be.”
Finally, as I mentioned last time, please contact me with questions, comments, or criticism. I would to respond. You can also message me through Substack if you prefer that to a Google form: