The American Wall Street Journal quoted American and Israeli officials as saying that Tel Aviv modified its military operations in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, after extensive discussions with American officials to avoid crossing the “red line” of the Joe Biden administration and sparking a crisis in relations with its closest ally.
The officials confirmed that Israel had frozen its original plan to carry out a military operation with a two-division incursion into Rafah, an operation that the White House expressed concern could lead to an escalation in the number of casualties in the conflict that has already led to tens of thousands of civilian casualties.
Instead, according to the sources, Israel chose to launch a military campaign focused on closing the border between Gaza and Egypt, as well as intensifying raids on Rafah.
The journalist pointed out that retooling the Israeli war plan enabled Israel to move away from President Joe Biden’s warnings to avoid carrying out a major ground operation in Rafah or risk a reduction in American military support.
This comes at a time when Biden is trying to put more pressure on the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Israel to agree to a ceasefire as part of a three-stage road map to end the fighting in the Gaza Strip. But the “softened” Israeli military operation still inflicted heavy losses on civilians in Rafah, according to the newspaper.
Other Western officials complained that there were insufficient preparations to provide care for more than 800,000 civilians who fled Rafah during the fighting.
Red line
The red line – a term used for the first time by Biden last March – is likely to resonate in the coming weeks.
“There was a misconception about what Biden’s red line comment meant,” said Jonathan Banikoff, a former senior US official.
“For many in the Arab world, this was interpreted as a no-go military operation in Rafah if Israel wanted to retain American support.” Bannikov adds, “For many in the American administration, the intention was never to say that Israel cannot carry out a military operation. Rather, the intention was to say that Israel cannot carry out an operation like it did in Gaza City or Khan Yunis, which resulted in a large number of deaths.” And destruction.”
Behind closed doors, Israeli planning for the imminent Rafah operation has been widely discussed in the Strategic Advisory Group, made up of senior US and Israeli officials who meet regularly via video conferences and in person.
An Israeli official said: “They did not cross the red line.” He added, “They said, ‘Do it in a different way that reduces the collateral damage and risks to which the population is exposed.'”
As the Israeli strategy developed, the idea of sending two Israeli divisions to Rafah to “clear” a city filled with more than a million civilians was put aside. Instead, a plan was drawn up to seize the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and a border strip with Egypt that Israel says contains many tunnels used by Hamas to smuggle weapons, building materials and other supplies.
The Israeli official continued: “This does not mean that we modified our plan to satisfy the Americans without achieving our goal.” He added: “We have not given up on the goal of defeating Hamas in Rafah,” as he put it.