Live Update 
From the Liveblog of
Thursday, May 9, 2024
From the Liveblog of
Thursday, May 9, 2024
Israeli ambassador to US: Withholding weapons from Israel sends ‘wrong message’
The Israeli ambassador to the United States says US President Joe Biden’s decision to withhold weapons from Israel over its planned operation in Rafah sends the “wrong message” to the Hamas militant group and the country’s foes.
“This is very unfortunate,” Ambassador Michael Herzog tells a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace webinar. “It sends the wrong message to Hamas and to our enemies in the region.”
“It puts us in a corner because we have to deal with Rafah one way or the other,” Herzog adds.
He also says that “nobody presented to me or to us a strategy of defeating Hamas without dealing with Rafah.”
