US and Israeli officials to meet virtually to discuss Rafah
U.S. and Israeli officials will meet virtually on Monday, and they will continue their discussions regarding Israel’s intended operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The Biden administration has warned for weeks that an Israeli ground invasion into the city would pose a grave risk to the more than 1 million Palestinians who have fled to Rafah to avoid the front lines of the war, while Israeli leaders insist they have to conduct full-scale operations to meet their war goals.
A U.S. official confirmed the expected meeting to the Washington Examiner and noted the administration expects follow-up meetings in person between the two allies.
President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have a decadeslong relationship that has seemingly reached a new low point over the potential for a ground operation in Rafah. The two leaders spoke in late March, and during the call, Netanyahu agreed to send top advisers to Washington to meet with U.S. officials to discuss alternatives.
He then canceled the trip in protest of America’s abstention during a United Nations Security Council resolution on the war that ultimately passed and called for an immediate ceasefire. The White House has said, as the U.S. official reiterated, that they now expect the meeting to take place — simply at a later date.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said last week that they expect Israel to hold off on a ground invasion of Rafah until after the meeting.
The Israel Defense Forces said it has “dismantled” 20 of Hamas’s original 24 battalions, according to the Washington Post, though the remaining ones are in Rafah, which is why they intend to go into the city. Hamas intentionally embeds itself within and underneath civilian infrastructure in Gaza to force Israelis to either not go after them or to increase the likelihood of civilian casualties.
“We wanted to have that meeting with Israel to present to them an alternative way to accomplish their legitimate security goals of defeating the Hamas battalions in Rafah because we believe it is in their interest to do this in a better way,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said last week.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“We believe that a full-scale military operation in Rafah will not just cause civilian harm to the Palestinian people. It will not just hinder the flow of humanitarian assistance — most of which is coming in through the Rafah area and being distributed initially through Rafah. We believe that that kind of operation would hurt Israel’s national security,” he said.
Israeli officials have said they intend to safeguard the civilians in Rafah but have not explained how they intend to do that and how they intend to support the overwhelming internally displaced population that will have to return to the north, much of which has been destroyed in the war.
