White House denies that Biden has set ‘red lines’ for the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza

The White House denied on Tuesday that President Biden had drawn any “red line” for Israel in his campaign against Hamas in Gaza, but warned again that Israel should not attack the city of Rafah, the southernmost city in the enclave, without protection for more than a million people take shelter there.

“The president has made no statements, pronouncements or announcements,” said Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser, referring to an interview Mr. Biden gave over the weekend in which he was asked if he had a “red line” on Israel. must not cross each other in the prosecution of the war.

In the interview with MSNBC, Mr. Biden reprimanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel over the rising number of civilian casualties in Gaza, saying that “he needs to pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost” and that “he is hurting Israel more than helping Israel.”

Mr. Netanyahu later dismissed the claim as “wrong,” and on Tuesday he again defended Israel’s efforts to minimize civilian casualties. In a video call with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobby group based in Washington commonly referred to as AIPAC, he said Israel’s allies “cannot say that you support Israel’s goal of destroying Hamas and then turn against Israel to reschedule if necessary.” the actions necessary to achieve that goal.”

While seeking to increase pressure on Mr Netanyahu, Mr Biden has insisted that US support for Israel will remain steadfast. Mr. Sullivan, who met with the Israeli ambassador, Michael Herzog, on Tuesday, declined to discuss reports that if Israel were to proceed with the Rafah operation, Mr. Biden could impose restrictions on how Israel can use the weapons that the United States supplies to the country.

“We are not going to engage in hypotheticals about what will happen, and the reports purporting to describe the president’s thinking are uninformed speculation,” Mr. Sullivan said.

But he reiterated Mr. Biden’s position that Israel should not attack Rafah without explaining how it would protect civilians who have taken refuge there.

The president believes there is a path to long-term stability and security for Israel, Mr. Sullivan said, but “that path does not lie in storming Rafah, home to 1.3 million people, in the absence of a credible plan to tackle the problems. with the population there. And again, as things stand right now, we haven’t seen what that plan is yet.”

For his part, Netanyahu vowed to attack Hamas again in Rafah on Tuesday, despite warnings from the United States and other countries that a ground offensive there would have disastrous consequences for the city’s civilians.

“To win this war we must destroy the remaining Hamas battalions in Rafah,” Mr Netanyahu said said. “If not, Hamas will regroup, rearm and retake Gaza, and we’ll be back to square one. And that is an intolerable threat that we cannot accept.”

More than a million Palestinians have fled fighting in other parts of the Gaza Strip – Many of them obeying Israeli directives to move south for their safety – have crammed into temporary, often squalid shelters in Rafah, on the border with Egypt. People there and aid workers have described worsening crises of hunger, disease and desperate conditions, and Israel’s allies have increasingly urged the country to scale back its military campaign and allow more aid into Gaza.

Israeli officials have said they are developing a plan to evacuate civilians from Rafah, and Mr. Netanyahu said on Tuesday: “We will finish the job in Rafah while allowing the civilian population to stay out of harm’s way.”

While tensions between Mr. Biden and Mr. Netanyahu have become increasingly public, analysts have wondered for months whether Israel can achieve its goal of rooting out Hamas. In a report released Monday, but written before the latest tensions between U.S. and Israeli officials, U.S. intelligence analysts expressed doubts about the feasibility of that goal.

“Israel will likely face continued armed resistance from Hamas for years to come, and the military will struggle to neutralize Hamas’s underground infrastructure, which allows insurgents to hide, gain strength and surprise Israeli forces,” he said. the report.