By MATTHEW LEE and JOSEF FEDERMAN (Associated Press)
In Israel's Tel Aviv, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken left the Middle East on Friday without success, as Israel’s prime minister refused American appeals to cancel a planned ground invasion of Rafah, a city in southern Gaza filled with displaced civilians.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's firm stance sets the stage for potentially tough discussions in Washington next week between top US officials and a high-level Israeli delegation. Netanyahu stated that Israel is prepared to go into Rafah alone if needed. Despite their disagreements, the Biden administration has kept providing crucial military aid and diplomatic support, even as Israel fights against Hamas has led to over 32,000 deaths in Gaza and worsened the humanitarian crisis.
Israel claims that Rafah is the final stronghold of Hamas and believes that the group's forces there must be defeated for Israel to achieve its war objectives. Following the group’s October 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people, took 250 hostages, and sparked intense Israeli air and ground attacks in Gaza.
Hamas is recognized as a terrorist organization by the US, Canada, and EU.
Rafah currently houses more than 1 million displaced Palestinians who fled the fighting in other parts of Gaza. The US and most of the global communityare concerned that an Israeli ground invasion will endanger civilian lives and hinder the much-needed flow of humanitarian aid into the territory, much of which comes through Rafah.
Netanyahu informed Blinken that Israel is working on plans to evacuate civilians from combat zones and address the humanitarian needs of Gaza, where international aid officials say the entire population is suffering from food insecurity and the potential for famine is approaching in the hard-hit north.
“I also said that we have no way to defeat Hamas without entering Rafah,” Netanyahu stated. “I told him that I hope we would do this with U.S. support but if necessary – we will do it alone.”
Wrapping up his sixth visit to the Middle East since the war began, Blinken told reporters that the US shares Israel’s objective of defeating Hamas.
“However, we believe that a significant ground operation in Rafah is not the way to achieve it, and we made that very clear,” he said, also warning that Israel faces increasing isolation if it proceeds.
The looming invasion of Rafah has overshadowed ongoing attempts to negotiate a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. Blinken, who also met with Arab leaders during his trip this week, acknowledged that “there’s still a lot of work to be done.”
Blinken spoke shortly after a US-sponsored ceasefire resolution in the UN Security Council was vetoed by Russia and China. Blinken expressed disbelief that the measure had been rejected.
RAFAH TENSIONS RISING
The US initially strongly supported Israel after the October 7 attack. However, relations have increasingly deteriorated as the war drags on into its fifth month.
According to Palestinian health officials in Gaza, at least 32,070 people have died, and about two thirds of them are women and children. Israel claims that one-third of those killed are members of Hamas, and says the group is responsible for civilian casualties by hiding and operating in residential areas.
The U.S. stance on a Rafah operation has changed recently. Initially, U.S. officials called for a plan to evacuate civilians from danger. Now, they say there is no credible way to do that.
Blinken said, “It risks causing more civilian deaths. It risks causing greater damage to the provision of humanitarian assistance. It risks further isolating Israel around the world and endangering its long-term security and standing.”
U.S. officials say other options, including specifically targeted operations against known Hamas fighters and commanders, are the only way to prevent a civilian disaster.
Approximately three quarters of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled into Rafah, the farthest south they can go before the Egyptian border. There are now sprawling tent camps in the city. The city is now dotted with tent camps..
The U.S. will present its ideas for alternatives at next week’s meetings, when a delegation led by Netanyahu’s national security adviser and a member of Israel’s War Cabinet heads to Washington. Israel’s defense minister, another member of the War Cabinet, will also visit.
Blinken said talks would focus on post-war plans, another area of disagreement.
The U.S. wants the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority – which Hamas removed from Gaza in 2007 – to regain power in the territory, along with a clear path toward an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. Netanyahu rejects Palestinian independence or a role for the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank, and says Israel must maintain long-term security control over Gaza.
AN ELUSIVE CEASE-FIRE
International mediators, led by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt, have been working on a cease-fire to pause or end the war in Gaza.
Israel is seeking the release of the more than 100 hostages still held by Hamas, while Hamas wants an end — not a temporary pause — to the war along with the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. Hamas wants Israel to release large numbers of Palestinian prisoners.
After his talks with Israeli leaders, Blinken met with families of hostages who hold U.S. citizenship before departing. He later greeted a small group of protesters who gathered in solidarity with the families outside his hotel.
Protesters chanted “Blinken, thank you,” as he walked by the crowd. He said the U.S. was “working to bring them home” as he shook hands.
Blinken told reporters that progress has been made in recent weeks, but the final gaps “tend to be the hardest.”
“There’s still a lot of work to be done, hard work to be done,” he said.
Toward those efforts, he said he also discussed the need to increase humanitarian aid entering Gaza. He said “some positive steps” have been taken in recent days. “But it’s not enough.”
Israel says it places no restrictions on the amounts of humanitarian aid it allows into Gaza. But international aid groups say deliveries have been impeded by Israeli military restrictions, ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of public order.
So little food has entered Gaza that now up to 60% of children under 5 are malnourished, compared with fewer than 1% before the war started, according to the head of the World Health Organization on Thursday.
U.N. RESOLUTION WAS ‘CYNICALLY VETOED’
At the United Nations, Russia and China vetoed a U.S.-sponsored U.N. resolution supporting “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Israel-Hamas war. The two countries called the measure ambiguous and said it was not the direct demand to end the fighting that much of the world seeks.
The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 11 members in favor and three against, including Algeria, the Arab representative on the council. Guyana abstained.
A key issue was the unusual language that said the Security Council “determines the imperative of an immediate and sustained cease-fire.” The phrasing was not a straightforward “demand” or “call” to halt hostilities.
It also appeared to loosen, but not drop, previous U.S. demands that Hamas release all hostages as part of a cease-fire.
Blinken said the measure had been “cynically vetoed” and should have been embraced.
“We were trying to show the international community’s sense of urgency about getting a cease-fire tied to the release of hostages,” Blinken said. He also said it had sought to condemn Hamas. “It’s unimaginable why countries wouldn’t be able to do that.”
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Federman reported from Jerusalem.
