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Netanyahu to Send Officials to DC 03/19 06:19
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday
agreed to send a team of Israeli officials to Washington to discuss with Biden
administration officials a prospective Rafah operation as each side is looking
to make "clear to the other its perspective," White House national security
adviser Jake Sullivan said.
The agreement to hold talks about Rafah came as Biden and Netanyahu spoke
Monday, their first interaction in more than a month, as the divide has grown
between allies over the food crisis in Gaza and Israel's conduct during the
war, according to the White House. Sullivan said the talks will happen in the
coming days and are expected to involve military, intelligence and humanitarian
experts.
The White House has been skeptical of Netanyahu's plan to carry out an
operation in the southern city of Rafah, where about 1.5 million displaced
Palestinians are sheltering, as Israel looks to eliminate Hamas following the
militant group's deadly Oct. 7 attack.
Sullivan said Biden in the call once again urged Netanyahu not to carry out
a Rafah operation. At the coming talks, he said U.S. officials will lay out "an
alternative approach that would target key Hamas elements in Rafah and secure
the Egypt-Gaza border without a major ground invasion."
"The president has rejected, and did again today, the straw man that raising
questions about Rafah is the same as raising questions about defeating Hamas,"
Sullivan said. "That's just nonsense. Our position is that Hamas should not be
allowed a safe haven in Rafah or anywhere else, but a major ground operation
there would be a mistake. It would lead to more innocent civilian deaths,
worsen the already dire humanitarian crisis, deepen the anarchy in Gaza and
further isolate Israel internationally."
The call comes after Republicans in Washington and Israeli officials were
quick to express outrage after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer sharply
criticized Netanyahu's handling of the war in Gaza and called for Israel to
hold new elections. They accused the Democratic leader of breaking the
unwritten rule against interfering in a close ally's electoral politics.
Biden hasn't endorsed Schumer's call for election but said he thought he
gave a "good speech" that reflected the concerns of many Americans. Netanyahu
raised concerns about the calls by Schumer for new elections, Sullivan said.
Biden administration officials have warned that they would not support an
operation in Rafah without the Israelis presenting a credible plan to ensure
the safety of innocent Palestinian civilians. Israel has yet to present such a
plan, according to White House officials.
Netanyahu in a statement after the call made no direct mention of the
tension.
"We discussed the latest developments in the war, including Israel's
commitment to achieving all of the war's goals: Eliminating Hamas, freeing all
of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza never (again) constitutes a threat to
Israel -- while providing the necessary humanitarian aid that will assist in
achieving these goals," Netanyahu said.
The Biden-Netanyahu call also came as a new report warned that "famine is
imminent" in northern Gaza, where 70% of the remaining population is
experiencing catastrophic hunger, and that a further escalation of the war
could push around half of Gaza's population to the brink of starvation. The
report came from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a
partnership of more than a dozen governments, U.N. aid and other agencies that
determines the severity of food crises.
Netanyahu lashed out against the American criticism on Sunday, describing
calls for a new election as "wholly inappropriate."
Netanyahu told Fox News Channel that Israel never would have called for a
new U.S. election after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and he denounced Schumer's
comments as inappropriate.
"We're not a banana republic," he said. "The people of Israel will choose
when they will have elections, and who they'll elect, and it's not something
that will be foisted on us."
Even as they express frustration about aspects of the Israeli operations,
the White House acknowledges that Israel has made significant progress in
degrading Hamas. And Sullivan revealed on Monday that an Israeli operation last
week killed Hamas' third in command, Marwan Issa.
"The president told the prime minister again today that we share the goal of
defeating Hamas, but we just believe you need a coherent and sustainable
strategy to make that happen," Sullivan said.
Biden after his State of the Union address earlier this month was caught on
a hot mic telling a Democratic ally that he has told Netanyahu they would have
a "come to Jesus" meeting over the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. His
frustration with Netanyahu's prosecution of the war was also on display in a
recent MSNBC interview, in which he asserted Netanyahu was "hurting Israel."
"He has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas,"
Biden said of Netanyahu in the MSNBC interview. "But he must, he must, he must
pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the
actions taken. He's hurting ... in my view, he's hurting Israel more than
helping Israel."
The president announced during his State of the Union address that the U.S.
military would help establish a temporary pier aimed at boosting the amount of
aid getting into the territory. The U.S. military has also been air-dropping
aid into Gaza.
The Biden administration resorted to the unusual workarounds after months of
appealing to Israel, a top recipient of military aid, to step up access and
protection for trucks bearing humanitarian goods for Gaza.
The five-month war was triggered after Hamas-led militants stormed into
southern Israel in a surprise attack, rampaging through communities, killing
some 1,200 people -- mostly civilians -- and taking around 250 hostages.
Israel responded with one of the deadliest and most destructive military
campaigns in recent history. The war has killed over 31,000 Palestinians,
according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Around 80% of Gaza's population of 2.3
million have fled their homes, and a quarter of the population faces starvation.
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This story has been corrected to properly attribute a new report that said
"famine is imminent" in Gaza to the Integrated Food Service Phase
Classification. It was previously attributed to the World Food Program.
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