WASHINGTON – The Biden administration is warning Israel of the risks of attacking the southern Gaza city of Rafah, intensifying efforts to get its Middle East ally to rethink the conduct of the five-month-old war, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The looming operation is a potential showdown between the White House and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which sees the assault as vital for the defeat of Hamas.
Israeli officials want to press ahead in coming months against Hamas fighters in Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians displaced by fighting have taken refuge.
But senior US officials said they are cautioning Israel against a direct ground and air attack, doubting it can develop an effective plan to move the civilian population out of harm’s way ahead of the assault.
In a sign of growing White House concern about Rafah, President Biden warned Saturday that an Israeli attack would cross a “red line” and left open the possibility that the US might withhold some types of military assistance to Israel if the operation caused extensive civilian casualties.
The White House has taken other steps in recent weeks to pressure or bypass Netanyahu, including by delivering more-pointed warnings on the Rafah operation and finding new ways to deliver aid to Palestinians in Gaza by air and sea.
