Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has informed the US’s prime 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 accomplish that with out US backing if essential.
Following a gathering with visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday, Netanyahu mentioned he informed the US official there was no different method to defeat Hamas.
“I informed him that I hope we’ll do it with the help of the US, but when we have now to – we’ll do it alone,” he mentioned in a press release.
Nevertheless, Blinken mentioned a significant navy floor operation into Rafah “shouldn’t be the way in which” to defeat Hamas and would danger “additional isolating” Israel.
Talking as he departed Israel, Blinken informed reporters he had “candid conversations”, referring to conferences with Netanyahu and the battle cupboard.
A floor operation in Rafah “dangers killing extra civilians. It dangers wreaking larger havoc with the humanitarian help. It dangers additional isolating Israel all over the world and jeopardising its long-term safety and standing,” he mentioned.
He additionally emphasised to Netanyahu the necessity to shield civilians in Gaza, the US Division of State mentioned.
‘Prison’
Blinken has been on a whistlestop tour of the area to help truce talks in Qatar that contain oblique negotiations between Israel and Hamas officers.
Nevertheless, 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 referred to as “felony”.
Tensions between the Biden administration and Netanyahu have spiked in current weeks. Washington has implored Israel to do extra to permit humanitarian support into Gaza, the place support companies 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 individuals in Gaza”.
Whereas there have been “constructive” steps taken over the previous few days concerning the entry of support, “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 the US can use that towards Israel as a result of principally, Israel at the moment has just one good friend … and that’s the US,” he mentioned.
‘Urgency’ about ceasefire
Throughout Blinken’s go to to Tel Aviv, a number of dozen individuals, together with members of the family of captives being held in Gaza, gathered outdoors a resort the place the US delegation was based mostly, holding banners calling for a direct ceasefire in Gaza.
Contained in the resort, 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 had been launched in an earlier pause in combating, 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 did not cross a draft US decision that referred to as for, however didn’t demand, a ceasefire in Israel’s battle 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 help, however then was cynically vetoed by Russia and China, I believe we had been attempting to indicate the worldwide neighborhood a way of urgency about getting a ceasefire,” Blinken informed 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, once you get right down to the final objects, they are usually the toughest,” Blinken mentioned in regards to the talks. “So there may be nonetheless a number of … laborious work to be performed.”
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 damaging”.
