WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday that a military operation in the town of Rafah would only increase lawlessness in the Gaza Strip and the two leaders agreed that their teams would meet in Washington to discuss it, the White House said.
This meeting could take place this week or next and Israel will not launch any military operation in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering, before these discussions, said Jake Sullivan, national security adviser of the White House, after a telephone interview between the two leaders.
“Anarchy reigns in areas that the Israeli army has cleared but not stabilized” in the Gaza Strip and the humanitarian crisis will worsen if Israel launches its announced offensive on Rafah, declared Jake Sullivan, to summarize the message sent by Joe Biden to Benjamin Netanyahu during their telephone interview, the first since February 15.
Relations between the two leaders have become strained due to the consequences for the population of Gaza of the military offensive launched by Israel in retaliation for the Hamas attack on its territory on October 7.
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Jake Sullivan called their discussion “professional” and clarified that it did not end abruptly.
Joe Biden did not threaten to limit American support for Israel and reaffirmed the United States’ support for the Israeli desire to eradicate the Hamas activists responsible for the October 7 attack, he stressed. .
Jake Sullivan thus confirmed the death of Marouane Issa, considered number three in the Hamas hierarchy, during an Israeli operation this month in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Islamist movement has not expressed itself on the subject.
According to his national security adviser, the American president told the Israeli Prime Minister that he must implement a coherent strategy in Gaza “rather than sending Israel to smash Rafah”.
Benjamin Netanyahu said he discussed with Joe Biden Israel’s commitment to achieving all of its war goals: eliminating Hamas, freeing all hostages taken in the October 7 attack and ensuring that the Gaza Strip no longer constitutes a threat to the Jewish state in the future.
(Trevor Hunnicutt, Doina Chiacu and Steve Holland, written by David Ljunggren, French version Corentin Chappron and Bertrand Boucey)
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