‘Deeply concerned about Israeli operation in Rafah,’ Joe Biden tells Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
Gaza City and Khan Younis. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Biden said he had a telephonic conversation with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the latest developments in Israel and Gaza.
“I continued to affirm that Israel has a right to go after Hamas, a group of terrorists responsible for the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust," the US President said while reiterating the need for an immediate ceasefire as part of a deal to free hostages and surge aid to civilians in Gaza. He added, "I asked the Prime Minister to send a team to Washington to discuss ways to target Hamas without a major ground operation in Rafah." Addressing a press briefing, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said PM Netanyahu, during his conversation with Biden, agreed to send an inter-agency team of Israeli officials to Washington to hold discussions on an alternative approach to target key Hamas elements in the southern Gaza city of Rafah and secure the Egypt-Gaza border without a major ground invasion.
"The President explained why he is so deeply concerned about the prospect of Israel conducting major military operations in Rafah of the kind it conducted in Gaza City and Khan Younis," the NSA said as quoted by PTI. It is pertinent to note that about a million people have taken refuge in Rafah as they have nowhere else to go.
“These people went from Gaza City to Khan Younis and then to Rafah. Other major cities in Gaza have largely been destroyed," he said.
Sullivan asserted that Israel has still not presented the US or the world with a plan on how and where it would safely move those civilians. Israeli military forces on Monday launched a raid on Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and accused Hamas militants of using
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