National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Monday said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at President’s Biden’s urging, has agreed to send a team to Washington to hear U.S. concerns about Israel's Rafah operation.
“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,” Sullivan said. “It would lead to more innocent civilian deaths, worsen the already dire humanitarian crisis, deepen the anarchy in Gaza, and further isolate Israel internationally.”
Biden urged Netanyahu, who he had not spoken to for over a month prior to Monday, to send an interagency team of Israeli officials to discuss an alternative approach in Gaza without a major ground invasion.
"The key goals Israel wants to achieve in Rafah can be done by other means,” Sullivan said. “On the call today, President Biden asked the prime minister to send a senior interagency team composed of military, intelligence, and humanitarian officials to Washington in the coming days to hear U.S. concerns about Israel's current Rafah planning and to lay out an alternative approach that would target key Hamas elements in Rafah and secure the Egypt-Gaza border without a major ground invasion.”
Sullivan acknowledged that Netanyahu may have “his own point of view on a Rafah operation," but that the prime minister had agreed to send a team for the discussions.
