US President Joe Biden on Monday said that he had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dispatch a delegation to Washington for discussions on preventing an all-out assault in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
This action underscores President Biden’s clear intention to assert control over the crucial US ally, reflecting concerns that a full-scale attack on Rafah could exacerbate the already devastating loss of life and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The White House said separately that Israel had killed one of Hamas’s top commanders in a strike in Gaza.
“I asked the Prime Minister to send a team to Washington to discuss ways to target Hamas without a major ground operation in Rafah,” Biden said on X after speaking to Netanyahu for the first time in more than a month.
Biden also “reiterated the need for an immediate ceasefire as part of a deal to free hostages, lasting several weeks, so we can get hostages home and surge aid to civilians in Gaza.”
Roughly 1.5 million people are sheltering in Rafah, most of them displaced by Israel’s relentless assault on other parts of Gaza since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.
The White House earlier said Biden had warned Netanyahu that an offensive on Rafah would be a “mistake”, in their first call since February 15.
Netanyahu agreed to send a team of senior Israeli officials to Washington in coming days to discuss “alternative approaches that would target key elements of Hamas”, he added.
