Israeli delegation to visit Washington to discuss
planned offensive on Rafah
US says attack would be ‘mistake’ as Biden and
Netanyahu talk by phone for first time in over a month
Julian
Borger in Washington
Mon 18 Mar
2024 17.36 EDT
Israel will
send a team of officials to Washington to discuss its planned offensive on
Rafah, the White House has said, as the Biden administration insists that an
attack would be a “mistake” and seeks to persuade Israel to allow in more aid
in the face of an imminent famine in Gaza.
The US
national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, announced the Israeli visit after a
phone call on Monday between Joe Biden and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin
Netanyahu, focusing on the planned Rafah assault that Netanyahu has vowed to
launch.
Sullivan
confirmed that Israeli forces had killed Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of
Hamas’s military wing in Gaza, and one of the masterminds of the 7 October
attacks, in an operation last week, one of thousands of Hamas fighters he said
had been killed. But he added: “a military plan cannot succeed without an
integrated humanitarian plan and political plan.”
Sullivan
said it was “first and foremost” Israel’s obligation “to step up and ensure
that more is done to deliver food to starving people in northern Gaza”, in the
wake of a warning from UN organisations that famine was “imminent” in northern
Gaza, with an onset at any time between mid-March and May. Administration
officials made clear that Israel would bear primary responsibility if a famine
was allowed to happen.
“With just
two previous famine declarations in the 21st century, this is a horrific
milestone,” Samantha Power, the head of the US Agency for International
Development, said. “We call on Israel to take immediate action to put an end to
this mass – and preventable – suffering.”
Sullivan
restated US opposition to the planned Rafah offensive, pointing out that more
than a million Palestinians had taken refuge in the southernmost Gazan town
having fled other cities ruined by Israeli bombing.
“Israel has
not presented us or the world with a plan for how or where they would safely
move those civilians, let alone feed and house them and ensure access to basic
things like sanitation,” Sullivan said.
He also
pointed out Rafah was the main entry point for the small amount of aid reaching
Gaza, and it could seriously affect Israeli relations with Egypt, on the other
side of the border.
Sullivan
described the Biden-Netanyahu call, their first in over a month, as
“businesslike” but said the US president had dismissed “straw man” arguments
put forward by the Israeli leader.
“The
president has rejected and did again today the straw man that raising questions
about Rafah is the same as raising questions about defeating Hamas. That’s just
nonsense,” he said.
Sullivan
admitted that Israel had made military gains against Hamas but said, “A major
ground operation [in Rafah] 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.”
In the
call, Biden asked Netanyahu to send a team of military, intelligence and
humanitarian officials to discuss Gaza and talk about alternatives to attacking
Rafah.
“Now we
really need to get down to brass tacks and have the chance for a delegation
from each side on an integrated basis, everyone’s sitting around the same
table, talking through the way forward,” Sullivan said. “Send your team to
Washington, let’s talk about it. We’ll lay out for you what we believe is a
better way.”
He said
Netanyahu accepted the invitation and the meeting should happen at the end of
this week or the beginning of next week.
“We have
every expectation that they’re not going to proceed with a major military
operation in Rafah until we have that conversation,” Sullivan added.
The
national security adviser said talks were also continuing in Doha between
Israel, Qatar and Egypt aimed at securing a hostage deal, and that if Hamas
agreed to release the elderly, sick and women hostages “tomorrow” there would
be an immediate six-week ceasefire.
“We believe
those discussions are very live, that a deal is possible, that we should be
able to achieve it and that it is the best way both to get hostages home and to
alleviate the suffering of the civilians in Gaza,” Sullivan said.
He said the
US was hoping to beat the projected schedule of 45 to 60 days for building a
floating dock off the Gaza Strip for delivering aid delivered by sea. The plan
is for US military engineers to put the dock together at sea and then for it to
be floated into shore and secured by Israeli troops, Sullivan said. Aid
agencies have warned, however, that the famine would already have a grip on
Gaza by the time any such a pier is built, it remains unclear how food would be
distributed, and it would be no substitute for opening more land routes for
more aid to flow into the besieged coastal strip.
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