Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed the Israeli military will enter Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza where more than a million civilians are sheltering, despite continued protests from the Biden administration.
President Joe Biden spoke with Netanyahu on Monday and stressed his opposition to large-scale Israeli operations in Rafah, even as he backed Israel’s desire to go after Hamas, the terrorist group that carried out the Oct. 7 attack that left roughly 1,200 people dead, a majority of whom were civilians.
The U.S. president reiterated “his deep concerns about the prospect of Israel conducting a major ground operation in Rafah,” according to a readout of their first call in weeks, due to several factors, most significantly that more than a million Palestinians have fled to the city.
Netanyahu’s office said he approved a military plan for operations in Rafah late last week, though it has not released it publicly or shown it to Biden administration leaders.
“We have a disagreement with the Americans about the need to enter Rafah,” Netanyahu told the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, according to the Times of Israel. “Not about the need to eliminate Hamas — the need to enter Rafah. We do not see a way to eliminate Hamas militarily without destroying these remaining battalions. We are determined to do it.”
“I made it clear to the president in our conversation, in the clearest way, that we are determined to complete the elimination of these battalions in Rafah,” the Israeli leader added. “There is no way to do it except by going in on the ground.”
The Biden administration disagrees with Netanyahu on the latter point, that there is no alternative way to defeat Hamas.
“Our position is that Hamas should not be allowed a safe haven in Rafah or anywhere else. But a major ground operation there would be a mistake. It would lead to more innocent civilian deaths, worsen the already dire humanitarian crisis, deepen the anarchy in Gaza, and further isolate Israel internationally,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday. “Most importantly, the key goals Israel wants to achieve in Rafah can be done by other means.”
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza began in the northern part of the strip and moved south as the war went on. It urged Palestinians in the north to move south to avoid the combat zone and continued to encourage them to flee south as operations migrated that way as well.
That has set up the current situation in which more than a million Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, along the Gaza-Egyptian border, with nowhere further south left to flee to and much of the infrastructure in the northern part of the strip destroyed.
“What the president said today was, ‘I want you to understand, Mr. Prime Minister, exactly where I am on this. I am for the defeat of Hamas. I believe that they are an evil terrorist group with not just Israeli but American blood on their hands. At the same time, I believe that to get to that, you need a strategy that works. And that strategy should not involve a major military operation that puts thousands and thousands of lives — civilian, innocent lives at risk — in Rafah. There is a better way,’” Sullivan explained.
Full-scale Israeli operations in Rafah may also force the closure of or limit the Rafah crossing, which is a crossing at the Gaza-Israel border that has been the primary entrance for aid getting into the strip.
“Rafah is a primary entry point for humanitarian assistance into Gaza from Egypt and from Israel,” Sullivan explained. “An invasion would shut that down or at least put it at grave risk right at the moment when it is most sorely needed.”
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Biden asked Netanyahu to send a delegation of leaders to Washington prior to the invasion of Rafah to exchange ideas about how to complete their war efforts without causing significantly more civilian casualties. The Israeli leader agreed to the request.
Amid the debate over a Rafah invasion, the United States is hoping to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a temporary ceasefire deal that would allow for a surge in humanitarian aid to get to Gaza without the difficulties that come with an active combat zone in exchange for the release of dozens of hostages Hamas has held since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack that prompted the current iteration of war between Israel and Hamas.