The White House announced Thursday that plans for an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah have been put on hold and that Israeli and U.S. officials are working to reschedule a meeting to discuss the plan.
National security communications adviser John Kirby said in a briefing with reporters that the Biden administration does not expect to launch an attack on Rafah at least until the end of the meeting.
He said a date for the talks has not yet been set.
The meeting resumed after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reversed a decision to cancel a delegation of war strategists to Washington to discuss his government’s eradication of Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city.
Netanyahu canceled a delegation visit on Monday to protest the United States’ abstention in a U.N. Security Council vote that would have allowed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war with Hamas. The White House confirmed on Wednesday that Netanyahu had agreed to reschedule the meeting.
Top Biden officials have urged Israel to abandon plans to attack Rafah, where more than 1.4 million Palestinian civilians have sought safety, as bilateral tensions rise over Israel’s behavior in the nearly six-month war against Hamas.
During a two-day meeting in Washington earlier this week, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and CIA Director William Burns pleaded with Israel Defense Minister Yoav Galante finds alternatives to avoid more casualties in Gaza According to Palestinian figures, the death toll has exceeded 32,000.
Kirby said the discussions with Gallant “are not intended to replace what we hope to be able to do in a more comprehensive manner with the Israeli delegation coming to Washington.”
Netanyahu insists the goal of “total victory” against Hamas cannot be achieved without access to Rafah, which Israel says is home to four Hamas battalions of thousands of fighters.
“To win this war, we must destroy the remaining Hamas camps in Rafah,” the prime minister told a video conference on Tuesday with the pro-Israel lobby group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. “If not, Hamas will regroup, rearm and reconquer Gaza, and we are back to square one. This is an intolerable threat that we cannot accept.”
Meanwhile, Qatari talks over a ceasefire in exchange for the release of hostages by Hamas remain deadlocked despite a broad diplomatic push by U.S. officials along with Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
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