The United States has warned Israel that it will be will be giving a strategic victory to Hamas if it carries out plans for an all-out assault on Rafah.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said: “Our view is any kind of major Rafah ground operation would actually strengthen Hamas’s hands at the negotiating table, not Israel’s”.
Mr Kirby also said more civilian deaths in Rafah from an Israeli offensive would give more ammunition to Hamas’s “twisted narrative” about Israel.
The latest US reaction comes after US president Joe Biden said he would pause more offensive military assistance to Israel if it goes through with the operation in a city where more than one million civilians are sheltering.
The Israeli military said a limited operation in Rafah was meant to kill fighters and dismantle infrastructure used by Hamas, which governs the besieged Palestinian territory.
Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has vowed Israel will stand alone and “fight with our fingernails” in defiance of US threats to further restrict arms deliveries if Israeli forces proceed with an offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Mr Netanyahu was speaking on Thursday after Israeli and Hamas delegations left the ceasefire negotiations in Cairo.
It was unclear whether the talks had broken down or simply paused. Hamas said early on Friday that the “ball is now completely” in Israel’s hands, while Israel has claimed that Hamas’s version of a deal fell far short of its requirements.
The failure to reach an agreement in this week’s round of meetings raised fears of an imminent Israeli attack on Rafah.
Dwindling food and fuel stocks could force aid operations to grind to a halt within days in Gaza as vital crossings remain shut, forcing hospitals to close down and leading to more malnutrition, United Nations aid agencies warned on Friday.
Humanitarian workers have sounded the alarm this week over the closure of the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings for aid and people as part of Israel’s military operation in Rafah.
“For five days, no fuel and virtually no humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip, and we are scraping the bottom of the barrel,” said the Unicef senior emergency co-ordinator in the Gaza Strip, Hamish Young.
“This is already a huge issue for the population and for all humanitarian actors but in a matter of days, if not corrected, the lack of fuel could grind humanitarian operations to a halt,” he told a virtual briefing.
Elsewhere, the UN general assembly is expected to vote today on a resolution that would grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine and call on the Security Council to favourably reconsider its request to become the 194th member of the United Nations.
The United States vetoed a widely backed council resolution on in April that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for Palestine, a goal the Palestinians have long sought and Israel has worked to prevent.
US deputy ambassador Robert Wood made clear yesterday that the Biden administration is opposed to the assembly resolution. – Guardian
