Thaer Ahmad, a Palestinian-American doctor, left in protest against the summit with US President Joe Biden‘s administration.
According to CNN, a prominent US media outlet, Ahmad left Tuesday’s meeting, which was attended by Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
“I was the only Palestinian at the meeting, which was very disappointing. I said I would leave the meeting out of respect for my community.”
Before leaving the meeting, Ahmad said he handed Biden a letter written by Hadil, an 8-year-old orphan who had taken refuge in Rafah. “I beg you, President Biden, prevent them from entering Rafah,” the letter said.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced plans to launch a ground operation against Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where at least 1 million civilians have taken refuge. Washington has opposed the plan from the beginning.
Ahmad said that more needs to be done to protect aid workers in Gaza and that he had conveyed this to Biden. The doctor made the following statements:
Gaza has become uninhabitable. There is nothing left of it. There are no schools and people are living in tents in a very cramped space. It seems that the White House has not decided to step in and really step up to the plate.
Seven employees of the international aid organization World Central Kitchen were killed in the Israeli army’s attack on Deir al-Balah area in Gaza on Monday.
The US-based organization stated that the employees killed were of Australian, Polish, UK, US-Canadian and Palestinian nationalities. While Washington reacted to the incident, the Tel Aviv administration announced that an investigation was launched into the attack.
In his statement yesterday, Netanyahu argued that the aid workers were “not intentionally attacked” and apologized for the incident, which he described as “tragic” and shared condolences.
Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said, “This should not have happened. There was a very serious mistake,” he said, adding that they accepted responsibility.
According to the latest figures released by the United Nations (UN), 176 employees of the Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) have been killed so far in the war that began on October 7 with Hamas attacks.
On the other hand, Palestine renewed its application for full membership in the UN. Riyad Mansour, Palestine’s Permanent Observer to the UN, said in a statement yesterday that “at the instruction of the Palestinian leadership, a letter was sent to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres requesting a reconsideration of the membership application.”
Palestine is a “non-member observer state” in the 193-member organization. Palestine requires the approval of the UN Security Council (UNSC) before it can become a full member of the UN.
Palestine also applied for full UN membership in 2011, but failed to gain the necessary support in the UNSC.
Independent, CNN, New York Times, Times of Israel, AA
