TEL AVIV, Israel (news agencies) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday once again left the Middle East empty-handed as Israel’s prime minister rejected American appeals to call off a promised ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which is overflowing with displaced civilians.
The tough message from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sets the stage for potentially difficult talks next week in Washington between top U.S. officials and a high-level Israeli delegation. Netanyahu said Israel is ready to “do it alone” in Rafah if necessary. Despite their differences, the Biden administration has continued to provide crucial military aid and diplomatic support, even as Israel’s war against Hamas has killed more than 32,000 people in Gaza and led to a worsening humanitarian crisis.
Israel says Rafah is the last remaining stronghold of Hamas and says the militant group’s forces there must be defeated for Israel to meet its war objectives. Israel vowed to destroy Hamas following the group’s Oct. 7 attack, which killed some 1,200 people, took 250 others hostage and triggered the fierce Israeli air and ground offensive in Gaza.
But Rafah now shelters over 1 million homeless Palestinians who fled fighting elsewhere in Gaza. The U.S., along with most of the international community, fears an Israeli ground invasion will endanger civilians’ lives and impede the flow of desperately needed humanitarian aid into the territory, most of which comes through Rafah.
Netanyahu said he told Blinken that Israel is working on ways to evacuate civilians from combat zones and to address the humanitarian needs of Gaza, where international aid officials say the entire population is suffering from food insecurity and famine is imminent in the hard-hit north.
“I also said that we have no way to defeat Hamas without entering Rafah,” Netanyahu said. “I told him that I hope we would do this with U.S. support but if necessary – we will do it alone.”
Blinken, wrapping up his sixth visit to the Mideast since the war broke out, told reporters that the U.S. shares Israel’s goal of defeating Hamas.
“But a major ground operation in Rafah is not, in our judgment, the way to achieve it and we were very clear about that,” he said, adding that Israel faces growing isolation if it presses ahead.
The looming Rafah invasion has cast a shadow over ongoing efforts to forge a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas. Blinken, who also met with Arab leaders during his trip this week, acknowledged “there’s still a lot of work to be done.”
Blinken spoke shortly after a U.S.-sponsored cease-fire resolution in the U.N. Security Council was vetoed by Russia and China. Blinken said it was “unimaginable” that the measure had been rejected.
The U.S. initially sided strongly with Israel after the Oct. 7 attack. But relations have increasingly soured as the war drags on into its fifth month.
Palestinian health officials in Gaza said Friday that at least 32,070 people have been killed, with at least two thirds of them women and children. Israel claims at least a third of the dead are Hamas militants, and says the group is responsible for civilian casualties by hiding and operating in residential areas.
The U.S. position on a Rafah operation shifted in recent days. Officials had called for a plan to get civilians out of harm’s way. Now, they say there is no credible way to do that.
“It risks killing more civilians. It risks wreaking greater havoc with the provision of humanitarian assistance. It risks further isolating Israel around the world and jeopardizing its long term security and standing,” Blinken said.
U.S. officials say other options, including specifically targeted operations against known Hamas fighters and commanders, are the only way to avoid a civilian catastrophe.
Roughly three quarters of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled into Rafah, the farthest south they can go before the Egyptian border. Sprawling tent camps now dot the city.
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