Invading Rafah a mistake, says Joe
Biden’s phone call warning
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden has warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that a ground offensive in Rafah would be a “mistake”, as they spoke for the first time in a month amid increasing tensions over the war in Gaza.
In a sign of growing US pressure as the death toll in Gaza soars and the humanitarian situation worsens, Mr Netanyahu agreed to Mr Biden’s request that he send a team of top Israeli security officials to Washington to discuss the country’s war plans for Rafah.
But Mr Netanyahu said he told Mr Biden he insisted on eliminating Hamas – the Palestinian militant group behind the October 7 attacks on Israel – underscoring US difficulties in influencing its close ally.
The two leaders last spoke on February 15, and Mr Biden has shown increasing impatience with Mr Netanyahu, fearing that opposition among American voters to the way Israel is conducting the war could seriously hurt his reelection chances in November.
“The President explained why he is so deeply concerned about the prospect of Israel conducting major military operations in Rafah,” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said.
“A major ground operation there would be a mistake – it would lead to more innocent civilian deaths, worsen the already dire humanitarian crisis, deepen the anarchy in Gaza, and further isolate Israel internationally.”
Roughly 1.5 million people are sheltering in Rafah, most of them displaced by the war.
Mr Biden had asked Mr Netanyahu during the call to dispatch a delegation to Washington to “hear US concerns” about Israel’s Rafah plan and “lay out an alternative approach” involving targeted attacks on Hamas leaders.
Mr Netanyahu “obviously has his own point of view on a Rafah operation” but he had agreed to send the team of military, intelligence and aid officials in the coming days, Mr Sullivan added.
It came as Mr Sullivan confirmed that Israel had killed Hamas’s third-in-command, Marwan Issa, in a military operation last week.
Mr Netanyahu said in a statement after the Biden call that he had reiterated “Israel’s commitment to achieving all of the war’s objectives”, including eliminating Hamas, releasing all hostages held by the group and “ensuring Gaza will never present a threat to Israel”.
He has repeatedly said an assault on Rafah is a key to achieving those objectives.
Asked about reports that some of Mr Biden and Mr Netanyahu’s conversations have been angry and finished with the US President hanging up, Mr Sullivan described Monday’s call as “businesslike” and said it “did not end abruptly”.
Explaining why the leaders had not spoken for 32 days, Mr Sullivan said Mr Biden reserved his calls to Mr Netanyahu for “when he believes there is a key strategic moment”.
The call was the first since Mr Biden – who has continued to supply Israel with billions of dollars in military assistance – was caught on a hot mic saying he’d have a “come-to-Jesus meeting” with Mr Netanyahu.