Mohamed Abed/AFP/Getty Images
A Palestinian inspects the rubble of a building destroyed in overnight Israeli shelling in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on March 27, 2024, as the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas continues.
Washington
CNN
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The Biden administration has announced an Israeli government operation detailing what a major military operation into Rafah would look like, including how Israel will seek to protect Gaza City’s more than 1 million civilians. A US official told CNN he had not yet seen the plan. This comes on the heels of a virtual meeting between senior American and Israeli officials on Monday.
In recent weeks, senior U.S. officials have categorically warned in public that Israel must not expand its military operations into southern Gaza without a viable plan to move the many civilians currently sheltering in Rafah out of harm’s way. I’ve been doing it.
The fact that the United States has not yet been presented with a detailed blueprint for exactly how Israel will act means that if the Israeli military were to proceed with a ground invasion of Rafah at this time, it would be possible for Israel to attack the so-called “Strait” It has become clear that it will exceed “.” The “red lines” that President Joe Biden recently warned about.
The two delegations discussed the situation in Rafah, and U.S. officials presented their Israeli counterparts with alternatives to a large-scale ground operation into southern Gaza at a meeting on Monday.
After the meeting, a U.S. official told CNN that the Biden administration was “not hopeful” that there was a chance of a resolution to the situation, and that the White House was using the meeting as a warning of the possibility of a situation that would continue for weeks to come. He said he sees it as just the latest in a series of talks over the matter. Invasion of the southern city of Gaza by Israeli forces.
Still, officials from both countries said in a joint statement that the meeting was “constructive” and said another face-to-face meeting could be held as early as next week.
Monday’s meeting lasted more than two and a half hours and included U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security chief John Finer, and Middle East adviser Brett McGuirk. participated. , and other officials representing the White House, State Department, and Department of Defense. U.S. Ambassador Jack Lew also attended.
The Israeli delegation included National Security Adviser Tsashi Hanegbi and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who chaired the meeting.
Biden administration officials are pressuring Israel to pursue “better alternatives” to a massive ground invasion of Rafah, where more than 1 million starving Palestinians have fled with nowhere to escape. A U.S. official familiar with the conversation told CNN. These US officials were also briefed by officials on the situation on the ground in Rafah.
One of the officials said the meeting, which followed working-level talks between the two countries and a meeting between Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant, said: “This is not the whole story. Everything,” he said. , last week.
After the visit, the Pentagon announced that Austin emphasized that Israel “must not proceed without a credible and workable plan to ensure the safety and humanitarian assistance of civilians displaced in Rafah.”
“If they’re going to move forward with military operations, we have to have this conversation. We need to understand how they move forward,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday. , told reporters while the talks were still ongoing. “When Jake Sullivan got up on the stage here a while ago, he said he believes and there’s another way to go about this, there’s another way to corner Hamas.”
The fact that the talks took place was seen as a positive sign of continued communication between Israel and the United States, even if it ended without any promise of breakthrough or compromise. The leaders communicated about Israel’s war in Gaza.
A meeting scheduled for last week was canceled by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the US refused to block a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages held by Hamas. But the signs persist forever. Tensions between Israel and its most powerful ally smolder.
Pentagon officials shared some of Rafah’s alternatives with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who visited the country last week.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said he would not be deterred by the Biden administration’s opposition to the Rafah invasion. He told members of Congress last week that Israel had “no choice” but to move into Rafah, saying Israel’s “existence is at stake.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his delegation that displaced Palestinians remaining in Rafah “just need to move.”
The talks come as both Israelis and Americans grow increasingly dissatisfied with their respective governments’ handling of the Gaza conflict.
Over the weekend, thousands of Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to demand Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ouster. It was the biggest protest in the country since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, while other recent events Mr. Biden has hosted include a huge fundraiser in New South Wales last week. York, home to former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, has been plagued many times by pro-Palestinian protesters.
“There are too many innocent victims, Israelis and Palestinians,” Biden said after his remarks in New York were interrupted. But, he added, “Israel must not forget that its very existence is at stake.”
Still, Biden said, “We have to stop this effort that is actually causing tremendous deaths of innocent civilians, especially children.”
Biden’s advisers have been considering various options for weeks about what the U.S. response to the Rafah invasion should be. Officials have warned Israel that it risks becoming an international pariah if it begins an invasion, which U.S. officials say would lead to a humanitarian catastrophe.
Vice President Kamala Harris last week left the door open to unspecified consequences if Israel decides to proceed.
More than 32,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to a report by the region’s Ministry of Health.
This article has been updated with additional reporting.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak and Donald Judd contributed to this report.
