The USA is increasing pressure on Israel to refrain from a ground offensive in Rafah. There is a better strategy. But the USA attests Israel a success: Hamas’ number three is dead.
In the Gaza war, the USA wants to dissuade Israel from its planned ground offensive against the city of Rafah, which is overcrowded with refugees. US President Joe Biden asked Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call to send a team of representatives from the military, intelligence services and humanitarian aid specialists to Washington in the next few days, said Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan. There are other ways to fight the Islamist Hamas than an invasion of Rafah.
According to Sullivan, Netanyahu agreed to send the delegation in a phone call with Biden on Monday – their first conversation in more than four weeks.
At the same time, Sullivan acknowledged Israel’s successes. The army killed Hamas’ number three in Gaza, Marwan Issa, said Sullivan, after days of speculation. Israel said it had tracked down Issa, but did not initially confirm his death.
New negotiations on ceasefire and hostages
Meanwhile, new negotiations began in Qatar on a ceasefire in the Gaza war and the release of more hostages. Israeli television reported that the head of the Israeli foreign secret service Mossad, David Barnea, met with mediators in the emirate. It is assumed that the talks could last at least two weeks.
Hamas recently presented a new proposal to mediators Qatar, Egypt and the USA. In it, Hamas no longer demands that Israel end the war before the first hostages are exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
According to the proposal, the radical Islamist organization would make a more than just temporary cessation of hostages by Israel a prerequisite for a second phase of hostage releases. However, according to the media, Israel is pessimistic and continues to speak of unrealistic demands from the terrorist organization.
USA: Ground offensive in Rafah would be a mistake
The US government has long criticized the Israeli leadership’s plans to launch a ground offensive in Rafah. “We believe that Hamas should not have a safe haven in Rafah or elsewhere, but a major ground operation there would be a mistake,” Sullivan said. A meeting with the Israeli delegation in Washington is scheduled for the end of this week or early next week targeted.
More than a million people have sought refuge in Rafah, and Israel has not presented the United States or the world with a plan to bring these people to safety and care. “We expect that they will not move forward with the major military operation in Rafah until we have this conversation,” Sullivan said.
He explained that in their phone conversation, Biden again urged Netanyahu to refrain from the Rafah operation. At the upcoming deliberations, U.S. officials will outline “an alternative approach” that would “target key Hamas elements in Rafah and secure the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip” without launching a full-scale invasion with ground forces.
EU wants to impose sanctions against Israeli settlers for the first time
Meanwhile, the EU wants to impose sanctions against radical Israeli settlers in the West Bank for the first time. Foreign ministers of the member states agreed on corresponding plans at a meeting in Brussels, as EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced. They will now be formalized in the coming days.
According to information from the German Press Agency, Hungary announced that it no longer wanted to block the move. The background to the sanctions plans are violent acts by extremist settlers against Palestinians – especially after the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7th. The attacks, like the settlement construction itself, are seen as one of the obstacles to efforts to find a long-term peace solution in the Middle East conflict.