US tells Israel it will not support ‘unplanned’ Rafah offensive as President Biden calls Gaza attacks ‘exaggerated’.
Israel steps up attacks on Rafah as it prepares to mount a ground offensive despite warnings of catastrophic consequences for displaced Palestinians and the United States saying it will not support an attack on the southern Gaza Strip because that it would be a “disaster”.
The Israeli army launched several rounds of airstrikes and tank shelling on Rafah on Thursday and Friday. At least three children were among eight people killed Friday morning in Israeli attacks on homes in Rafah, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported. Five of those killed belonged to the same family.
“We have our backs to the (border) barrier and turned towards the Mediterranean. Where should we go?’” asked Emad, 55, a father of six, who fled to Rafah with his family.
Four people were also killed and several injured in the bombing of a kindergarten housing displaced people in az-Zawayda, and one person was killed in a bombing in Deir el-Balah, all two in central Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials said they planned to expand their military offensive in Gaza to include Rafah, where more than half of the enclave’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced forcibly, sometimes repeatedly, due to Israeli attacks.
The United States, the main military and financial backer of Israel and its war on Gaza, has warned of a large-scale offensive against Rafah, warning of a “disaster” due to the large number of civilians refugees in the city, which Israel declared a “disaster”. “safe zone” and where he told them to flee.
U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Thursday that the White House “would not support” such an operation, and a State Department spokesperson said he There appears to be “no planning and little thought” for such a decision on Tel Aviv’s part. noting that Rafah was also a crucial entry point for humanitarian aid.
US President Joe Biden told reporters that Israel’s conduct in Gaza was “exaggerated”.
The Biden administration said it had issued a memorandum outlining standards that countries receiving U.S. military aid must meet.
The memorandum does not set new guidelines but calls on the State Department to receive written assurances from countries that they will meet current U.S. standards. For the first time, it also requires the U.S. government to submit an annual report to Congress on whether countries are meeting these requirements.
The memorandum was issued after Israel killed around 28,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and left much of the Gaza Strip in ruins.
In an article published Friday, the New York Times cited unnamed senior U.S. military intelligence officers as saying that Israel had killed only a third of Hamas fighters, meaning it is far from its target. declared goal of “total victory” over the Palestinian group.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in an article on X that an Israeli incursion into Rafah would “exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with incalculable regional consequences.”
Half of Gaza’s population is now crowded into Rafah with nowhere to go.
Reports that the Israeli military intends to next focus on Rafah are alarming.
Such action would exponentially worsen what is already a humanitarian nightmare with incalculable regional consequences.
– António Guterres (@antonioguterres) February 8, 2024
UNICEF, the organization’s children’s agency, also warned that more than 600,000 children and their families have been displaced to Rafah, many on multiple occasions.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have mediated truce talks between Israel and Hamas, with no tangible results so far.
Israel this week rejected conditions set out by Hamas, which demanded an end to fighting and the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza as part of a deal that would also include a prisoner exchange and more aid to the Strip. from Gaza.
Rafah lies along the Palestinian territory’s closed border with Egypt, which is also the main entry point for limited humanitarian aid arriving in the Gaza Strip after passing strict Israeli controls. Cairo has warned that any land operation or mass movement of Palestinians to the Sinai Peninsula would jeopardize its four-decade-old peace treaty with Israel.
