Israel will invade the border territory of Rafah in Gaza regardless of the status of peace talks with Hamas and despite pressure from the Biden administration to hold off, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday. But U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he’s only seen some elements of a plan, and has “not seen a number of things that we believe that will have to happen” for such an operation to proceed.
More than half of Gaza’s 2.5 million population has fled to Rafah, according to some estimates, as Israel has bombed other parts of the country. The group Doctors Without Borders has warned of declining humanitarian conditions in the area and said “a military incursion in Rafah would be a catastrophe.”
When asked by Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., about the potential for civilian casualties in such an incursion, Austin said Israel’s offensive has claimed “far too many civilian deaths already.”
“We certainly would want to see things done in a much different way,” than operations across the rest of Gaza, he said.
The Gaza Health Ministry puts the number of civilian deaths so far at at least 30,000. The Ministry is run by the Hamas government, but independent academic experts and the United Nations have said they see no signs the numbers are inflated.
While Austin said he has seen “some signs” the Israeli defense forces are preparing to address the humanitarian effects of a Rafah attack, he is still looking for more assurances and planning, such as “making provisions for the civilians [so that] wherever you direct them to, you have sustainment in that area…so, you know, that the housing, the medical care, all that stuff that, that needs to be in place.”
In a conversation with reporters last week, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the Biden administration is strongly opposed to an expanded military operation in Rafah.
“We do not think that that is the way to deal with Hamas in Rafah. We believe there are other ways to do it,” he said.
The Biden administration has faced months of pressure to stop providing arms to the Israeli military. On Monday, Amnesty International submitted a research briefing to the U.S. government documenting what the human rights group called the illegal use of U.S.-made weapons by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians. For example, the group cited the Joint Direct Attack Munitions, or JDAM, which it claims Israeli forces used in an October attack that killed 43 civilians, as well as GBU-39 small diameter bombs, which were used as part of a series of four strikes that killed 42 children, among others.
In his conversation with reporters, Sullivan said the administration is still examining accusations that Israel is failing to address humanitarian concerns and acting outside of international law, but that it will submit a required report on the subject to Congress on May 8.
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