Speaking by phone for the first time in a month on Monday night, US President Joe Biden made it clear to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US does not want to see a massive IDF ground incursion into Rafah, even if civilians are moved to a safer location in the Gaza Strip.
For months, the White House had been saying publicly it would only support an Israeli conquest of the southern Gaza city — the last one in Hamas hands — if Jerusalem made sure to do so in a way that does not endanger the 1.5 million civilians there, many of whom Israel had sent south in the early stages of the campaign.
Netanyahu, along with his war leadership, has insisted that there is no way to defeat Hamas without taking Rafah. The four remaining Hamas battalions, out of an initial 24, are in the city, and — more importantly — it sits on the border with Egypt. Israel suspects the terrorist organization tunneled under the Gaza border to smuggle in massive shipments of guns, explosives, and rockets over the last decade and a half.
Read the full article at the Times of Israel.
