Letters to the Editor: Attacking Rafah should result in the U.S. suspending aid to Israel

To the editor: As Princeton human rights expert Kenneth Roth has stated, “If the administration is so indifferent to existing law, it’s not clear what difference a new set of reports will make.” (“Biden order attaches human rights conditions to U.S. military aid,” Feb. 9, and “Israel’s next target in Gaza war is likely Rafah. Terrified people say there’s nowhere left to go,” Feb. 9)

Israel has ignored the ruling from the United Nations International Court of Justice for it to avoid killing innocent Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Now, it plans a siege of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians fled after Israel declared it a safe zone.

Facing famine and lacking medical access, people in Gaza have nowhere to find safety and security from Israeli bombs or from street-to-street fighting.

Perhaps another approach by the U.S. might deter Israel’s plans for Rafah: The Biden administration could simply stop funding and arming Israel’s military — if not for a timely brief pause, then a clear demand for a cease-fire to save Palestinian lives.

Lenore Navarro Dowling, Los Angeles

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To the editor: From the outset of Israel’s war with Hamas, the entire world should have been pressuring Egypt to open its border and let those who wished to leave to do so, even temporarily.

Nearby Arab countries could have offered safe haven to countless civilians. Canada and Turkey offered them safe haven.

Israel’s sole aims in prosecuting this war have been to root out an evil enemy and rescue its hostages, not to kill innocent civilians. Unfortunately, the world has been complicit in so much suffering and unnecessary death by not screaming from the rooftops to open the Rafah border crossing and let these people leave.

Pauline Regev, Santa Monica