The United States cautioned Israel on Thursday that sending troops into Gaza’s far-southern city of Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians have sought safety, would result in disaster.
The warning came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he ordered troops to prepare to operate in Rafah, the Gaza Strip’s last major town that Israeli ground troops have yet to invade.
Israel’s military forces increased their air raids on the city on Thursday, raising fears of ground warfare amid the hundreds of thousands of people driven from other parts of Gaza and now sheltering in tents and bombed-out houses.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cautioned that a military intervention in Rafah would exponentially worsen what is already a humanitarian disaster.
Despite international efforts to broker a ceasefire, heavy fighting continued in the worst Gaza war in history, beginning Hamas’ October 7 offensive on southern Israel.
Vedant Patel, a State Department deputy spokesman, said Washington had yet to see any evidence of serious planning for a ground operation in Rafah.
Noting that Rafah is also a critical access route for humanitarian goods bound for Gaza, Patel stated that such an assault would be not something we’d support.
“To conduct such an operation right now with no planning and little thought… would be a disaster”, Patel continued.
Patel went on to say, “Secretary of State Antony Blinken conveyed Washington’s concerns to Netanyahu directly during their talks on Wednesday in Jerusalem”.
Publicly, the US top diplomat emphasized that any military operation that Israel undertakes must prioritize civilians.
Blinken left Israel without achieving a cease-fire, completing his fifth crisis tour of the Middle East since the conflict began.
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