White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Sunday that Israel has indicated it will not invade the southern border city of Rafah in Gaza until authorities discuss its concerns with U.S. leaders.
“They assured us that we would not go to Rapha until we had a chance to really share our views and concerns with them,” Kirby said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. Told.
In recent days, Israel has appeared poised to launch an invasion of what it claims is Hamas’ last stronghold in Gaza, where more than a million Palestinian civilians have fled. The international community has long warned Israeli leaders of the devastating humanitarian consequences of targeting the region.
President Joe Biden in March called the attack on Rafah a “mistake,” but recently said the United States and Israel “have a common goal of seeing Hamas defeated in Rafah.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to visit Israel this week, and Mr Kirby said negotiating a six-week ceasefire would be a top priority. The US is seeking a deal that would allow for the release of Israeli and Palestinian hostages held by Hamas, as well as the flow of additional humanitarian aid to Gaza, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. .
Mr Blinken is required to report to Congress next week on whether Israel’s claims that it is using US weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law are credible.
However, Reuters reported that several senior State Department officials advised Mr. Blinken that Israel’s claims of compliance with international law did not appear to be “credible.”
In the memo, officials cited eight examples of Israeli military actions that they said raised “serious questions” about potential violations of international humanitarian law. The newspaper said some officials had disagreements with their colleagues.
However, the examples included repeated attacks on protected locations and civilian infrastructure. “Unconscionable and high-level civilian harm to military interests.” According to Reuters, little action has been taken to investigate violations or hold those responsible for significant civilian casualties to account, and that “humanitarian workers and journalists are being killed at an unprecedented rate. He was murdered.”
A humanitarian worker was killed in an Israeli airstrike while delivering food and medicine to people in urgent need.
The U.S. military recently began building a floating pier off the coast of Gaza to accept shipments of food and other humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians.
Kirby said Sunday that construction of the pier would take two to three weeks and “will help increase the amount of aid coming into Gaza.”
But, he added, “there is no substitute for the ground route and the truck rides.”
“What we’re hoping is that after a six-week temporary ceasefire, we might be able to maybe achieve a more permanent ceasefire,” Kirby said. “We want the conflict to end as soon as possible.”
Contributors: Dan Morrison, Joey Garrison, Tom Vanden Brook USA TODAY.Reuters
