Blinken warns Israel attack on Rafah would be a mistake
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says a major Israeli ground assault on the southern Gaza town of Rafah would be “a mistake” and “unnecessary” to defeating Hamas, underscoring the further souring of relations between the United States and Israel.
Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, meets with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Jerusalem on Feb. 7, 2024. Credit: Chuck Kennedy/U.S. State Department.
Blinken, on his sixth urgent Mideast mission since the war began in October, spoke after huddling with top Arab diplomats in Cairo.
He said an “immediate, sustained ceasefire” with the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas was urgently needed and that gaps were narrowing in indirect negotiations that US, Egypt and Qatar have spent weeks mediating.
Blinken heads to Israel on Friday to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet. The growing disagreements between Netanyahu and President Joe Biden over the prosecution of the war will likely overshadow those talks — particularly over Netanyahu’s determination to launch a ground assault on Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have sought refuge from devastating Israeli ground and air strikes further north.
Netanyahu has said that without an invasion of Rafah, Israel can’t achieve its goal of destroying Hamas after its deadly October 7 attack which triggered Israel’s bombardment and offensive in Gaza.
“A major military operation in Rafah would be a mistake, something we don’t support. And, it’s also not necessary to deal with Hamas, which is necessary,” Blinken told a news conference in Cairo with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.
A major offensive would mean more civilian deaths and worsen Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, Blinken said, adding that his talks on Rafah in Israel on Friday and discussions between senior US and Israeli officials next week in Washington will be to share ideas for alternative action.
The US position on a Rafah operation has shifted significantly in recent days. Initially, US officials said they could not support a major incursion into the city unless there was a clear and credible plan for getting civilians out of harm’s way. Now, US officials said they have concluded that there is no credible way to do that given the density of the population of more than a million people. They say now that other options, including specifically targeted operations against known Hamas fighters and commanders, are the only way to avoid a civilian catastrophe.
But Netanyahu, on a roughly 45-minute call with GOP senators on Wednesday, pledged to ignore warnings about a Rafah operation. He also took aim at Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s condemnation last week of the civilian death toll in Gaza and his call for new elections in Israel.
Republican senator John Kennedy, said Netanyahu “made it very clear that he and the people of Israel intend to prosecute the war to the full extent of their power and that he would not be dictated to by Senator Schumer or President Biden.”
Netanyahu has been accused by Israeli critics of undermining bipartisan American support by cultivating close ties with Republican leaders.
As Blinken and the Arab ministers met, Gaza’s Health Ministry raised the territory’s death toll to nearly 32,000 Palestinians since the war began on its soil. Also, UN officials stepped up warnings that famine is “imminent” in northern Gaza.
Meanwhile, the United States said it would seek a swift vote on a newly revised and tougher UN resolution demanding “an immediate and sustained ceasefire” to protect civilians and enable humanitarian aid to be delivered. The US deputy ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood, said he hoped a vote could take place by the end of the week. The resolution is notable because it does not directly tie the release of the hostages to the need for a ceasefire.
However, Blinken said the two must go hand-in-hand. “There is an urgent need for an immediate, sustained ceasefire with the release of hostages,” he said.
Netanyahu has also rejected the Biden administration’s repeated remonstrations that Israel’s long-term security cannot be assured without the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
The war began after Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people in the October 7 attack that triggered the war, and abducted another 250 people. Hamas is still believed to be holding some 100 people hostage, as well as the remains of 30 others.
AAP
