Biden calls on Israel to send a delegation to Washington to try to avoid an operation in Rafah

US President Joe Biden said Monday that he had ordered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to send a delegation to Washington to discuss how to avoid a widespread assault in the town of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip.

This summons is one of Joe Biden’s clearest attempts to slow down Israel, a country which is considering a major ground offensive by its army in Rafah, where more than a million Palestinian civilians are refugees.

“I asked the prime minister to send a team to Washington to discuss ways to target Hamas without carrying out a large ground offensive in Rafah”declared Joe Biden after an interview with Benjamin Netanyahu, the first in more than a month between the two leaders, whose relationship has clearly cooled.

Read alsoHamas-Israel war: start of Ramadan under tension in Jerusalem

Joe Biden has “reiterated the need for an immediate ceasefire as part of an agreement on the release of the hostages, lasting several weeks, so that the hostages can return home and aid to the civilians of Gaza can be transported”. An offensive on Rafah would be “a mistake”said US national security adviser Jake Sullivan, she “would lead to more innocent victims, worsen the already serious humanitarian situation, reinforce anarchy in Gaza and further isolate Israel” on the international scene.

Hitting Hamas in Rafah

During his telephone exchange, the American president asked for an Israeli delegation to be sent to the United States to discuss this offensive project, and the head of the Israeli government accepted, the adviser said during a conference. Press. This discussion must also focus on the possibility of “another approach” aiming to strike Hamas in Rafah without a major ground offensive, he said.

Jake Sullivan said he expected Israel to refrain from launching an operation in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, before this discussion in Washington takes place. “We share the objective of defeating Hamas, but we believe that a coherent and sustainable strategy is needed to achieve this”, he said again. However, he considered that Israel had “made significant progress” against the Palestinian group.

The White House confirmed Monday the death last week in Gaza of the deputy head of Hamas’s armed wing, Marwan Issa, who becomes the highest-ranking official killed in this territory by the Israeli army since the start of the war. The Israeli army reported an airstrike “in the center of the Gaza Strip, near Nuseirat”against a “underground base”was “used by two senior leaders of the organization (including) Marwan Issa”.

American presidential election

Israel, however, had not confirmed the death of the man, born in 1965, who was the deputy of Mohammed Deif, the leader of the al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of Hamas. The American president has supported Israel since the unprecedented attack by Hamas on October 7 on Israeli soil but has increasingly distanced himself from Benjamin Netanyahu.

Joe Biden is also facing increasing political pressure from the Muslim and Arab American population as well as young voters, a few months before the November presidential election. Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement following his conversation with Joe Biden that he reiterated “Israel’s commitment to achieving all the objectives of the war”. He cited as goals the elimination of Hamas, the release of all hostages held by the group and “the assurance that Gaza will never pose a threat to Israel”.

On October 7, Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza carried out an unprecedented attack in southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of at least 1,160 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count established in from official Israeli sources. According to Israel, around 250 people have been kidnapped and 130 of them are still hostages in Gaza, of whom 33 are believed to have died.