5/20/2024–|Last updated: 5/20/202406:44 PM (Mecca time)
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant informed US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Monday that Israel intends to expand its ground incursion into the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, until it dismantles Hamas and recovers the prisoners.
Galant pointed out that the Rafah operation will not stop, with the aim of purging the city of Hamas militants and rescuing the detainees.
The Israeli Ministry of Defense said – via a statement – that Gallant hosted Sullivan in his office in Tel Aviv today, and they held an expanded meeting with the participation of Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and other officials.
The ministry explained that the two sides discussed the course of the war in Gaza, efforts to return prisoners and detainees, and what Gallant claimed were amendments made by Israel to evacuate residents from the Rafah area, provide a “humanitarian response” and “the need to highlight the strength of the relationship between Israel and the United States in confronting Iranian aggression from its lands and through its agents.” “, according to what Anatolia reported from the statement.
The meeting also touched on tensions on the northern border (between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah), and Gallant told Sullivan that “Hezbollah’s ongoing operations could lead to a major escalation so that Israel can return the residents of the north to their homes.”
Meeting with Netanyahu
Sullivan arrived in Israel yesterday, Sunday, and met with officials, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement that Netanyahu discussed with Sullivan on Sunday the continuation of the war in Gaza, especially in Rafah, and “providing humanitarian aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip and communications to retrieve the kidnapped persons and the situation on the northern front.”
The meeting was attended by Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, Head of the National Security Agency, Tzachi Hanegbi, and the US President’s Special Envoy for Middle East Affairs, Brett McGurk, according to the statement.
Since May 6, the Israeli army has launched a ground attack on Rafah, causing the displacement of 810,000 Palestinians, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which confirmed that every time Palestinian families are displaced, those families are forced to move amid dangers. There is no safe area.
This comes as the occupation continues its war on the Gaza Strip since last October 7, leaving tens of thousands martyred and wounded, most of them children and women, and about 10 thousand missing amid massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of children and the elderly.
