The US does not believe Israel’s latest actions in Rafah crossed a US red line, White House national security spokesman John Kirby has said.
Mr Kirby told reporters on Tuesday night that the US was not turning a “blind eye” to the suffering of Palestinians, with his remarks coming just hours after Israeli tanks were seen in the centre of Gaza’s southernmost city.
Joe Biden warned Israel against launching a major military operation in Rafah, but his administration insisted on Tuesday that Israeli Defence Forces had not yet crossed its red lines.
“We have not seen them smash into Rafah,” Mr Kirby said.
The US president earlier this month said he would limit weapons supplies to Israel if it entered the “population centres” of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of civilians are still believed to be sheltering.
Israel drew international condemnation for an airstrike and fire in an area crowded with refugee tents that Gaza health authorities said killed at least 45 Palestinians – many of them women, children, or elderly – at a camp for displaced people on Sunday.
Israel has said the strike targeted and killed two senior Hamas officials, and that it believes the fire could have been caused by an explosion at a Hamas weapons store nearby.
“The Israelis have said this is a tragic mistake,” Mr Kirby said.
‘No mathematical formula’
Facing US campus protests over his support for Israel, Mr Biden said earlier this month that he would not supply Israel with weapons for a major military operation in Rafah, and he halted a shipment of bombs.
Yet he has since taken no action even as Israel has stepped up air attacks and, as of Tuesday, moved tanks into central Rafah.
Instead, the White House has largely retreated to arguing about what does, and does not, constitute an invasion.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said last week there was “no mathematical formula” and said that “what we’re going to be looking at is whether there is a lot of death and destruction.”
‘Blatant violations of international and humanitarian laws’
The Rafah strike has continued to provoke international outrage, with Saudi Arabia on Wednesday accusing Israel of committing “continuous genocidal massacres” in Gaza.
The Saudi foreign ministry said it holds the country responsible for “what is happening in Rafah and all across the occupied Palestinian territories”.
In one of its most strongly worded statements since the war began, the ministry said: “[Israel’s] continuous blatant violations of all international and humanitarian resolutions, laws, and norms… exacerbate the magnitude of the unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe experienced by the Palestinian people.”
Saudi Arabia was thought to be on course to normalise its relations with Israel under a US-backed plan before the war upended the process, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to commit to recognising a future Palestinian state seen as a key reason why the talks have faltered.
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