Senior U.S. and Israeli officials met virtually on Monday to discuss the course of action in Rafah, a key area of the Gaza Strip. While Benjamin Netanyahu intends to militarily invade the territory to continue cornering Hamas, the Biden administration wants to find another way to avoid civilian casualties.
According to reports, the meeting lasted a little more than two hours. It included Jake Sullivan (National Security Advisor), Ron Dermer (Minister of Strategic Affairs) and Tzachi Hanegbi (President of the National Security Council).
Regarding the content, both sides discussed the Rafah situation and, according to The Times of Israel, "agreed that they share the goal of seeing Hamas defeated" in that region. Leaving this for granted, the methodologies the United States and Israel proposed to achieve the objective are a little different.
Indeed, while Biden continues to discourage a large-scale military offensive in Rafah to avoid further civilian casualties and not isolate the Jewish State internationally, the Netanyahu government maintains that an incursion is essential to dismantle the remaining Hamas battalions. As for civilians' concerns, they reportedly agreed to evacuate almost a million people before the attack.
"The two sides over the course of two hours had a constructive engagement on Rafah. They agreed that they share the objective to see Hamas defeated in Rafah. The U.S. side expressed its concerns with various courses of action in Rafah. The Israeli side agreed to take these concerns into account and to have follow up discussions between experts, overseen by the SCG. The follow up discussions would include in person SCG meeting as early as next week," the White House said in a statement released Monday afternoon.
Karine Jean-Pierre, White House Press Secretary, was consulted about this at a conference and stressed the need to address a joint solution with Israel. "We know that there are Hamas operators in Rafah, but if they are going to move forward with military operations, we have to have this conversation," she said.
