by Jarrett Renshaw
(Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden reiterated to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that a military operation in Rafah cannot take place without a credible and implementable plan to guarantee the safety of Palestinian civilians, the White House said.
This is the second time in less than a week that Joe Biden has warned Benjamin Netanyahu against intervention in Rafah as long as the security of the more than a million Gazans who have found refuge there is not guaranteed.
Negotiations regarding a proposed agreement with Israel providing for a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages were also discussed and Joe Biden pledged to continue working tirelessly to help achieve the release of hostages still held by Hamas in the Palestinian enclave.
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The Israeli army declared Thursday that it was carrying out an operation in the Nasser hospital, located in Khan Younes in the south of the Gaza Strip, the main hospital still operational in the Palestinian enclave.
This assault on the Nasser hospital comes in a context of increased international pressure on Israel to show restraint in its offensive in Gaza, while the Jewish state has announced its desire to continue its military operations in Rafah, city border with Egypt considered the final refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by fighting for more than four months.
Joe Biden said earlier this month that Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip had been “excessive” and expressed serious concern about the growing number of civilian casualties in the Palestinian enclave.
Israel launched its military operation against Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the deadly October 7 attack on its territory.
According to the latest report from Palestinian health authorities, the offensive launched by Israel in the Gaza Strip has left more than 28,600 dead and displaced the majority of the enclave’s 2.3 million inhabitants.
(Reporting by Rami Ayyub and Jarrett Renshaw; French version by Camille Raynaud)
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