WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Monday urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against a large military offensive in the southern Gaza Strip, just hours before the Israeli government voted to move forward with the long-threatened assault.
Biden had previously told Netanyahu that the United States did not support a ground invasion of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering, calling it a “mistake.” White House officials said the president maintained his position in a call with the prime minister Monday.
“The president doesn’t want to see operations in Rafah that put at greater risk the more than a million people that are seeking refuge there,” said John Kirby, a White House National Security Council spokesperson.
Kirby said Biden asked Netanyahu about the plans to keep people in Rafah safe, and that the United States was questioning Israel about its intentions.
“Are we curious about the timing and the intent and where they’re going? Yes, absolutely,” Kirby said. “And the president expressed our curiosity about that on the call today.”
Shortly after the call, Hamas announced that it had accepted a deal proposed by Qatar and Egypt. But even as negotiations continued, Israel announced that it had conducted targeted strikes against Hamas in Rafah, and its war Cabinet voted unanimously to move forward with the ground offensive there.
Biden has been pressing for a cease-fire deal before Israel can begin its assault on Rafah, an operation that he and his advisers fear could thwart any short-term chances for peace. But Netanyahu has repeatedly rebuffed Biden’s warnings, and in an address Sunday he reiterated his vow to protect Israel against its “genocidal enemies.”
Also Monday, Biden met at the White House with King Abdullah II of Jordan, a key Middle East ally who has been a forceful voice in the global push for a cease-fire in Gaza. The meeting was described by White House officials as a private meeting, rather than an official state visit.
According to a summary of the meeting, released by the White House on Monday night, the two leaders discussed the latest developments in Gaza, including the release of Israeli hostages and desire for a “sustainable cease-fire,” which would allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. The summary said the two also discussed their shared commitment to “achieving a durable, lasting peace to include a pathway to a Palestinian state, with security guarantees for Israel,” as well as the importance of stability in the West Bank.
When the two leaders met earlier this year, they were united in denouncing the Rafah invasion. At a joint news conference in February, Biden said Israel should not proceed with a major ground offensive in Rafah without a “credible plan.” Abdullah said an Israeli invasion of Rafah was “certain to produce another humanitarian catastrophe” and demanded an immediate cease-fire.
On Monday, the Israeli military began warning more than 100,000 people in eastern Rafah to evacuate as Netanyahu vowed to move forward with the invasion in order to defeat Hamas, which killed more than 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostages in its Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Since the beginning of the war, according to authorities in Gaza, Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion have killed more than 34,000 people, many of them women and children, although the statistics do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
On Sunday, Abdullah’s wife, Queen Rania, described “outrage” in Jordan, where much of the population is ethnically Palestinian, and frustrations throughout the Arab world over Washington’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
In an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Rania said that Jordan saw the United States as an “enabler” of Israel’s war tactics and that Washington was sending “mixed messages” about the limits of international and humanitarian law.
In response to the criticism, Kirby said “two things can be true at once.”
“Israel has a right and a responsibility to defend itself, and we’re going to continue to provide for their security to help them with that,” he said. “And at the same time, they have a right and obligation to be careful about civilian casualties, and getting more humanitarian assistance in, and that’s why we’re working so hard on this hostage deal.”
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