US and Israel officials held two hours of virtual talks yesterday on a planned Israeli offensive in Gaza’s Rafah. According to a statement released after the meeting, the Israeli side has said that it would take the concerns into account, Reuters reported.
Both sides said that they agreed with the objective of seeing Hamas defeated in Rafah. A joint US-Israeli statement said the two-hour-long meeting was “constructive”.
“The US expressed its concerns with various courses of action in Rafah. The Israeli side agreed to take these concerns into account,” the statement read.
US President Joe Biden had earlier asked Israel not to conduct ground operations in Rafah in order to avoid more civilian casualties among the Palestinian population in Gaza. The Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed over 32,000 people, mostly children and women.
At the press briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that they had made their concerns known to the Israelis.
“If they are going to move forward with a military operation, we have to have this conversation. We have to understand how they’re going to move forward,” Jean-Pierre said.
Last week, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu had cancelled his trip to the United States after the US allowed passage of a Gaza ceasefire resolution at the United Nations by abstaining from it.
The session came a day after the Israeli military said it withdrew its forces from Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza following a two-week-long siege of the medical facility. Gaza’s civil defence said 300 bodies have so far been found inside Al-Shifa Hospital.
Meanwhile, negotiators from Egypt, Qatar and the United States are pushing for a six-week ceasefire. One of the sticking points in the talks has been the demand from Hamas that includes the full withdrawal of Israel troops and the return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza.
