Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has advised america’s high diplomat that Israel is decided to ship troops into the southern Gaza metropolis of Rafah, the place some 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering, and can achieve this with out US backing if needed.
Following a gathering with visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday, Netanyahu mentioned he advised the US official there was no different option to defeat Hamas.
“I advised him that I hope we’ll do it with the assist of the US, but when we have now to – we’ll do it alone,” he mentioned in an announcement.
Nonetheless, Blinken mentioned a significant navy floor operation into Rafah “just isn’t the way in which” to defeat Hamas and would threat “additional isolating” Israel.
Talking as he departed Israel, Blinken advised reporters he had “candid conversations”, referring to conferences with Netanyahu and the warfare cupboard.
A floor operation in Rafah “dangers killing extra civilians. It dangers wreaking larger havoc with the humanitarian help. It dangers additional isolating Israel around the globe and jeopardising its long-term safety and standing,” he mentioned.
He additionally emphasised to Netanyahu the necessity to defend civilians in Gaza, the US Division of State mentioned.
‘Legal’
Blinken has been on a whistlestop tour of the area to assist truce talks in Qatar that contain oblique negotiations between Israel and Hamas officers.
Nonetheless, on the bottom, Israel continues to pound Rafah and its environment within the south.
Elsewhere within the strip on Friday, Israeli forces continued to raid al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical advanced, for a fifth day, bombing a number of buildings and burning down its vascular division, Gaza’s Well being Ministry mentioned.
Israeli forces additionally detained about 240 sufferers and 10 well being personnel on the Prince Nayef Heart, the hospital’s radiology unit, the ministry added.
Israel claimed to have killed greater than 150 “terrorists” on the facility in its ongoing operation, which Hamas has known as “legal”.
Tensions between the Biden administration and Netanyahu have spiked in latest weeks. Washington has implored Israel to do extra to permit humanitarian assist into Gaza, the place assist businesses say a lot of the inhabitants is on the verge of famine.
Blinken mentioned that in talks with Israeli officers, they mentioned “surging and sustaining the quantity of humanitarian help for the folks in Gaza”.
Whereas there have been “optimistic” steps taken over the previous few days concerning the entry of assist, “it’s not sufficient”, Blinken mentioned.
Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara, mentioned there was a rising sense that Israel is changing into extra “remoted”, particularly within the West.
“I believe america can use that in opposition to Israel as a result of mainly, Israel as we speak has just one buddy … and that’s america,” he mentioned.
‘Urgency’ about ceasefire
Throughout Blinken’s go to to Tel Aviv, a number of dozen folks, together with relations of captives being held in Gaza, gathered outdoors a lodge the place the US delegation was primarily based, holding banners calling for a right away ceasefire in Gaza.
Contained in the lodge, Blinken met the households of American Israeli captives, a US official mentioned.
On October 7 and within the aftermath of the Hamas assaults, the group took about 250 captives. Some captives have been launched in an earlier pause in preventing, however greater than 100 are believed to stay, though some have been reported killed by Israeli air raids.
Blinken’s go to got here because the United Nations Safety Council didn’t move a draft US decision that known as for, however didn’t demand, a ceasefire in Israel’s warfare that has killed greater than 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza.
Washington has repeatedly blocked ceasefire resolutions on the UN. On Friday, a majority backed the renewed diplomatic push, however China and Russia vetoed the US textual content, saying it put no stress on Israel.
“On the decision, which bought very sturdy assist, however then was cynically vetoed by Russia and China, I believe we have been attempting to point out the worldwide group a way of urgency about getting a ceasefire,” Blinken advised reporters in Tel Aviv.
In the meantime, Israel’s spy chief David Barnea headed to Qatar for truce and captive launch negotiations together with CIA chief William Burns and Qatari and Egyptian officers.
“We made progress within the final couple of weeks on the hostage negotiations, closing gaps, however nearly by definition, whenever you get all the way down to the final objects, they are usually the toughest,” Blinken mentioned concerning the talks. “So there’s nonetheless a number of … onerous work to be accomplished.”
A Hamas official mentioned earlier within the week that Israel’s response to the group’s newest proposal for an preliminary six-week truce had been “largely unfavourable”.