Netanyahu Dismisses US Appeal to End Rafah Offensive Ahead of Washington Talks

On Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken left the Middle East empty-handed as Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected American appeals to call off a promised ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The tough message sets the stage for potentially difficult talks next week in Washington between top US officials and a high-level Israeli delegation. Despite their differences, the Biden administration has continued to provide crucial military aid and diplomatic support, even as Israel's war against Hamas has killed more than 32,000 people in Gaza and led to a worsening humanitarian crisis.Israel says Rafah is the last remaining stronghold of Hamas and says the militant group's forces there must be defeated for Israel to meet its war objectives. Israel vowed to destroy Hamas following the group's Oct. 7 attack, which killed some 1,200 people, took 250 others hostage and triggered the fierce Israeli air and ground offensive in Gaza. But Rafah now shelters over 1 million homeless Palestinians who fled fighting elsewhere in Gaza.The US, along with most of the international community, fears an Israeli ground invasion will endanger civilians' lives and impede the flow of desperately needed humanitarian aid into the territory, most of which comes through Rafah. Netanyahu said he told Blinken that Israel is working on ways 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 famine is imminent in the hard-hit north.Blinken, wrapping up his sixth visit to the Mideast since the war broke out, told reporters that the US shares Israel's goal of defeating Hamas. "But a major ground operation in Rafah is not, in our judgment, the way to achieve it and we were very clear about that," he said, adding that Israel faces growing isolation if it presses ahead.The looming Rafah invasion has cast a shadow over ongoing efforts to forge a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas. Blinken, who also met with Arab leaders during his trip this week, acknowledged "there's still a lot of work to be done." Blinken spoke shortly after a US-sponsored cease-fire resolution in the UN Security Council was vetoed by Russia and China. Blinken said it was "unimaginable" that the measure had been rejected.The US initially sided strongly with Israel after the Oct. 7 attack. But relations have increasingly soured as the war drags on into its fifth month. Palestinian health officials in Gaza said Friday that at least 32,070 people have been killed, with at least two-thirds of them women and children. Israel claims at least one-third of those killed are Hamas militants and says the group is responsible for civilian casualties by hiding and operating in residential areas.The US position on a Rafah operation has shifted in recent days. Initially, US officials called for a plan for getting civilians out of harm's way. Now, they say there is no credible way to do that. "It risks killing more civilians. It risks wreaking greater havoc with the provision of humanitarian assistance. It risks further isolating Israel around the world and jeopardizing its long-term security and standing," Blinken said.US officials say other options, including specifically targeted operations against known Hamas fighters and commanders, are the only way to avoid a civilian catastrophe. Roughly three-quarters of Gaza's 2.3 million people have fled into Rafah, the farthest south they can go before the Egyptian border.Blinken said talks would focus on post-war plans, another area of disagreement. The US wants the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority – which Hamas ousted from Gaza in 2007 – to return to power in the territory, along with a clear path toward an independent Palestinian state beside 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.International mediators led by the US, Qatar, and Egypt have been working on a cease-fire to pause or end the war in Gaza. Israel is seeking the release of 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.At the United Nations, Russia and China vetoed a US-sponsored UN 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 a direct demand to end fighting that much of the world seeks.