Washington DC – The United States has issued its strongest public warning yet to Israel against invading the populous city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, saying such a ground operation would deepen the humanitarian crisis in the besieged enclave.
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Monday that while President Joe Biden remains committed to the goal of defeating Hamas, he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that a major strike against Rafah would be a “mistake”.
“It would lead to more deaths of innocent civilians, worsen the already terrible humanitarian crisis, deepen the lawlessness in Gaza and further isolate Israel internationally,” Sullivan said.
The Israeli military has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians in Gaza since the war began on October 7, following a deadly attack in southern Israel that killed at least 1,100 people.
According to Sullivan, Biden asked Netanyahu in a phone call to send a team of military and intelligence officials to Washington, D.C., to hear concerns about a possible invasion of Rafah.
Throughout the war, Israel has ordered Palestinian civilians in Gaza to move south while invading the territory from the north.
Many residents were displaced first to the middle part of the enclave and then moved to the southern city of Khan Younis. In the end they were forced to flee again to Rafah, located on the border with Egypt.
In the past five months, Rafah's population has ballooned to more than 1.5 million people, up from 300,000 before the war.
Israeli leaders have repeatedly expressed their intention to invade Rafah, which serves as a key hub for humanitarian aid arriving across the Egyptian border.
But United Nations experts have warned of imminent famine in the territory. And Western countries, including Israel's allies in Europe, have warned the country not to attack Rafah.
On Monday, the United States unequivocally joined those calls, and Sullivan said the Palestinians in Rafah have nowhere else to go.
“Gaza's other major cities have been largely destroyed, and Israel has not presented us or the world with a plan for how or where they would safely move those civilians, much less feed and shelter them and grant them access to basic things like sanitation,” Sullivan said. saying.
Sullivan said Biden reiterated to Netanyahu his “deep commitment” to Israel's security. But he continued to criticize Israel's war effort.
“A military plan cannot succeed without an integrated humanitarian plan and political plan,” Sullivan told reporters.
“And the president has repeatedly noted that the continuation of military operations must be connected to a clear strategic endgame. “The president again told the prime minister today that we share the goal of defeating Hamas, but we simply believe that a coherent and sustainable strategy is needed to make that happen.”
Netanyahu and Biden have spoken regularly by phone since October 7, but the two leaders reportedly have a strained relationship, despite the US president's unwavering support for Israel.
Last week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a staunch supporter of Israel and the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in Biden's Democratic Party, described Netanyahu as an obstacle to peace and called for new elections in Israel “once the war begins to end.”
The Israeli prime minister later criticized the top US lawmaker's comments as “totally inappropriate” in an interview with CNN.
But Biden described Schumer's comments as a “good speech” that expressed concerns shared by many Americans.
Still, in an interview with MSNBC last week, Biden suggested he is unwilling to use U.S. aid and arms transfers as leverage to pressure Israel to end its abuses against the Palestinians.
“Israel's defense remains critical, so there is no red line [where] “I'm going to cut off all the weapons so they don't have the Iron Dome to protect them,” Biden said, referring to Israel's US-funded missile defense system.
“But there are red lines that, if you cross them, [we] “We cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead.”
Palestinian rights advocates have stressed for months that criticism alone will not get Netanyahu to end the war, and have called on Washington to impose conditions on aid to Israel.
But the Biden administration on Monday renewed its support for a foreign financing bill being considered in Congress that would provide more than $14 billion in additional assistance to Israel.
“Generally speaking, we support the contours of this companion bill. “We believe that it is vital to what is needed to support our Ukrainian partners, to support our Israeli partners,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.
