Israel team coming to US to talk Rafah invasion, ‘anarchy’
Israel is sending a “senior interagency team” to Washington to discuss targeting Hamas elements in Rafah as the White House lobbies for alternatives to Israel’s ground invasion plan that has drawn fierce opposition from regional and global leaders.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a call with President Joe Biden, agreed to send the team of military, intelligence and humanitarian officials. No timeline was revealed.
Sullivan said Biden stressed that more than 1 million Palestinians taking refuge in Rafah “have nowhere else to go (because) Gaza’s other major cities have largely been destroyed.” Invading the city, a primary entry point for humanitarian assistance into Gaza from Egypt, would further complicate efforts to provide food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians, Sullivan said. An invasion also could damage already strained Israeli-Egyptian relations, he added.
“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,” Sullivan said. “Most importantly, the key goals Israel wants to achieve in Rafah can be done by other means.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni joined the chorus of international leaders speaking out against Israel’s proposed Rafah offensive. “We will reiterate our opposition to a ground military action by Israel in Rafah, which could have yet more catastrophic consequences on the civilians massed in that area,” she told Italian lawmakers Tuesday ahead of an EU Council meeting this week.
Meanwhile, the entire population of Gaza is experiencing “severe levels of acute food insecurity,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday, expanding on starvation warnings a day earlier by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a partnership of more than a dozen governments, United Nations aid groups and other agencies that determines the severity of food crises. Blinken is in the Philippines ahead of his latest in a series of trips to the Middle East.
More than 50 militants killed in latest hospital raid, Israel says
The Israeli military said Tuesday that troops have killed more than 50 Hamas militants and arrested 180 in a raid at AlShifa Hospital. Israeli forces launched the raid Monday on Gaza’s largest hospital compound, where Palestinian officials say tens of thousands of people have been sheltering. Hamas accused the Israelis of targeting the compound with “indifference to the patients, medical crews and displaced” Palestinians living there.
The five-month war was triggered after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel in a surprise attack, rampaging through communities, killing about 1,200 people – most of them civilians – and taking up to 250 hostages.
Israel responded with one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history. The war has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. About 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have fled their homes.
Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari expressed cautious optimism about a new round of ceasefire and hostage negotiations that began Monday in Doha, Qatar. Israel said it was not optimistic about the talks, which are expected to last at least two weeks, the Times of Israel reported.
Mossad chief David Barnea, lead negotiator for Israel, returned home Tuesday, but an Israeli technical negotiating team remained in Doha, Ansari said in a briefing. He said a proposal could be sent to Hamas within days. An earlier proposal believed to provide a six-week truce in return for release of at least 40 of the more than 100 people still held by militants was reportedly rejected by Hamas leaders. Hamas has been pressing for an end to the war and the withdrawal of all Israeli troops.
Ansari also stressed Qatar’s position “is very clear” that an Israeli ground assault in Rafah would be a humanitarian catastrophe. An aid plane from Qatari arrived Tuesday in Egypt, loaded with food and other supplies bound for Gaza.
“The negotiations are (ongoing) and that’s what gives us optimism right now,” Ansari said. “We hope that we can continue building (a deal) in the next days.”