No alternative for Rafah invasion, Benjamin Netanyahu says, as rift with US grows
Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Tuesday brushed aside President Joe Biden's opposition to a planned ground invasion of Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip, saying that his government would press ahead despite pleas for restraint from the United States and key allies.
Netanyahu made the remarks to Israeli lawmakers a day after speaking by phone with Biden, who reiterated his stance against an offensive into Rafah, arguing that it could be disastrous for the people there and that Israel had other ways of achieving its objective of defeating Hamas.
At the president's request, Netanyahu agreed to send a team of Israeli officials to Washington to hear U.S. concerns and to discuss Rafah, but a day later he insisted there was no alternative. Sending troops into the city is necessary, Netanyahu said Tuesday, to eliminate Hamas battalions in the city.
The Israeli leader acknowledged the dispute with the Biden administration and said that Israel was engaged «in a dual campaign,» one military and one diplomatic.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, Vedant Patel, said of Netanyahu's comments, «we are just squarely in a different place and have a different viewpoint.» The administration believes there are «alternative approaches that would target the key elements of Hamas,» he said, and «would do so without a major ground operation in Rafah.»
Israel's military campaign has killed more than 31,000 people in the Gaza Strip, according to the territory's
