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Trump, Democrats, Israeli Officials Slam Biden for ‘Aiding Hamas’ With Threat to Halt Weapons

Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, US, April 2, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

US President Joe Biden’s threat to halt arms shipments to Israel if it proceeds with a planned military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah has drawn furious pushback from both US and Israeli officials, who charged the American president with helping the Hamas terror group.

In characteristically caustic terms, former President Donald Trump — who is running against Biden in this year’s US presidential election — accused the incumbent of siding with Hamas.

“Crooked Joe is taking the side of these terrorists just like he has sided with the Radical Mobs taking over our college campuses, because his donors are funding them,” Trump said on Truth Social.

“What Biden is doing with respect to Israel is disgraceful,” the presumptive Republican presidential nominee added on Thursday, while entering a New York courthouse for his criminal trial over hush money payments. “If any Jewish person voted for Joe Biden, they should be ashamed of themselves. He’s totally abandoned Israel.”

Biden told CNN in an interview on Wednesday that he had “made it clear that if they [Israel] go into Rafah … I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities — that deal with that problem.”

He added, “Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers.”

US lawmakers, including many fellow Democrats, and Israeli officials were quick to condemn Biden’s decision.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) told Axios he suspects Biden was “pandering to the far left” and that the upcoming election was “driving” him.

“I’d like the president to do right by Israel and recognize that the far left is not representative of the rest of the country,” he said.

Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.) added that Israel is “surrounded by danger, they need the tools to defend themselves” and that the US “should fulfill our obligation” by sending the weapons.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) also expressed his opposition to Biden’s threat, saying that the US must “stand with our key ally throughout all of this.”

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif) accused Biden of “throw[ing] away part of the package” after getting legislation passed in Congress that included about $15 billion in military aid to Israel.

“Biden seems to be communicating his displeasure, and I regard these statements as a communicative act, rather than a strategic act,” he said in remarks to the Jewish Insider.

Within Israel’s ruling coalition, cabinet ministers took turns firing verbal salvos at the Democratic president.

“Israel will continue to fight Hamas until its destruction,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz declared on X/Twitter. “There is no war more just than this.”

Hardline Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said American opposition would only strengthen Israel’s resolve. “We must continue this war until complete victory, despite the Biden administration’s opposition,” he said.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a fellow hardliner, tweeted that “Hamas [loves] Biden,” using a heart emoji.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to take an implicit shot at Biden’s decision, posting on X/Twitter a portion of his speech at Yad Vashem, Israel’s national memorial to the Holocaust, earlier this week to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“Today, we again confront enemies bent on our destruction,” Netanyahu said in the clip. “I say to the leaders of the world: No amount of pressure, no decision by any international forum, will stop Israel from defending itself … If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone.”

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant similarly did not mention Biden’s remarks directly on Thursday but appeared to issue a message in response to them.

“I turn to Israel’s enemies as well as to our best of friends and say: The State of Israel cannot be subdued, not the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], not the defense establishment, and not the State of Israel. We will stand strong, we will achieve our goals — we will hit Hamas, we will hit Hezbollah, and we will achieve security,” he said at a ceremony to commemorate Israel’s war dead.

The harsh rhetoric laid bare escalating tensions between the Biden administration and Israel’s government over the latter’s conduct during the war in Gaza, which was prompted by a bloody attack on Oct. 7 by Hamas in which 1200 people were murdered and another 252 were taken hostage.

Biden’s warning came amid Israeli preparations for a major offensive into the Rafah area near the Egyptian border with Gaza, in a bid to destroy the last four Hamas battalions and free the 132 Israelis who are thought to be held hostage there. More than 1.2 million Palestinians are currently in Rafah, many of whom were evacuated to humanitarian zones there from the northern Gaza Strip.

Hamas terrorists embed themselves within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeer civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations warned that Biden’s threat would be taken by Israel’s enemies as a signal of impending victory and embolden them further.

“How can we accomplish our goals of destroying Hamas and releasing the hostages if Israel is barred from entering a critical area like Rafah, which is where thousands of terrorists, hostages, and Hamas leadership are?” Gilad Erdan told Israeli broadcaster Kan.

He also warned that Biden’s threat could erode the president’s support among Jewish American voters, and noted that many are “hesitant” after backing Biden in 2020.

US Jewish leaders have also expressed their concern.

American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch said Biden’s remarks as well as his threat were detrimental to the war against Hamas.

“President Biden should not take steps that could impair Israel’s ability to prevent Hamas from attacking it again and again — as its leaders have promised,” he wrote on social media. “The US knows that defeating Hamas is critical to Israel’s long-term security and to defeating the global threat posed by the Iranian regime and its proxies.”

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) said Biden’s comments were “dangerous and counter to American interest.”

The post Trump, Democrats, Israeli Officials Slam Biden for ‘Aiding Hamas’ With Threat to Halt Weapons first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi lays a wreath as he visits the burial site of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, on the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon, June 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

A member of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli air strike on Tehran alongside a member of an Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group, a senior Lebanese security source told Reuters and the Iraqi group said on Saturday.

The source identified the Hezbollah member as Abu Ali Khalil, who had served as a bodyguard for Hezbollah’s slain chief Hassan Nasrallah. The source said Khalil had been on a religious pilgrimage to Iraq when he met up with a member of the Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada group.

They traveled together to Tehran and were both killed in an Israeli strike there, along with Khalil’s son, the senior security source said. Hezbollah has not joined in Iran’s air strikes against Israel from Lebanon.

Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada published a statement confirming that both the head of its security unit and Khalil had been killed in an Israeli strike.

Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli aerial attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs in September.

Israel and Iran have been trading strikes for nine consecutive days since Israel launched attacks on Iran, saying Tehran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran has said it does not seek nuclear weapons.

The post Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip

Israeli soldiers operate during a ground operation in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, July 3, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS

i24 News – The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), in cooperation with the General Security Service (Shin Bet), announced on Friday the killing of Ibrahim Abu Shamala, a senior financial official in Hamas’ military wing.

The operation took place on June 17th in the central Gaza Strip.

Abu Shamala held several key positions, including financial officer for Hamas’ military wing and assistant to Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing until his elimination in March 2024.

He was responsible for managing all the financial resources of Hamas’ military wing in Gaza, overseeing the planning and execution of the group’s war budget. This involved handling and smuggling millions of dollars into the Gaza Strip to fund Hamas’ military operations.

The post Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Report: Wary of Assassination by Israel, Khamenei Names 3 Potential Successors

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS

i24 News – Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei named three senior clerics as candidates to succeed him should he be killed, the New York Times reported on Saturday citing unnamed Iranian officials. It is understood the Ayatollah fears he could be assassinated in the coming days.

Khamenei reportedly mostly speaks with his commanders through a trusted aide now, suspending electronic communications.

Khamenei has designated three senior religious figures as candidates to replace him as well as choosing successors in the military chain of command in the likely event that additional senior officials be eliminated.

Earlier on Saturday Israel confirmed the elimination of Saeed Izadi and Bhanam Shahriari.

Shahriari, head of Iran’s Quds Force Weapons Transfer Unit, responsible for arming Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, was killed in an Israeli airstrike over 1,000 km from Israel in western Iran.

The post Report: Wary of Assassination by Israel, Khamenei Names 3 Potential Successors first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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