Biden warns Netanyahu against Hamas-controlled Rafah invasion as attack appears near

Politics

By Steven Nelson

WASHINGTON — President Biden “reiterated” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday that he does not want Israel to invade the Hamas-controlled city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip — following reports that the US had frozen an ammunition shipment to deter such an attack.

Biden, 81, placed the call on Holocaust Remembrance Day, when Israelis pause to remember the genocide of 6 million Jews by Nazi Germany during World War II.

“The president made it clear that we don’t want to see operations in Rafah that put at risk those million and a half people that are there,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Monday.

A White House readout of the 30-minute call tersely said: “The president reiterated his clear position on Rafah.”

The call also took place almost seven months after Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people — including 33 Americans — on Oct. 7 in the worst anti-Jewish massacre since 1945.

Biden and his top officials have consistently warned Netanyahu not to attack Rafah, Hamas’ final major area of control, without a well-developed plan to relocate Palestinians in the area.

Kirby also would not confirm or deny reporting by Axios from this past weekend that the US had put a hold on a shipment of American-made ammunition to Israel.

“Our support for Israel’s security remains ironclad,” the spokesman said instead.

Air Force Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, also said that he was “not aware of any changes in policies at this time” regarding conditioning aid to Israel.

“I mean, as you know, broadly speaking, we’ve provided a significant amount of security assistance to Israel in support of its defense,” he said. “But I don’t have anything on any particular individual cases or security systems based on those reports.”

The White House said Biden also “updated the Prime Minister on efforts to secure a hostage deal, including through ongoing talks today in Doha, Qatar.”

“The Prime Minister agreed to ensure the Kerem Shalom crossing [at the border of Gaza, Israel and Egypt] is open for humanitarian assistance for those in need,” the readout also said.

Israel closed the crossing Sunday after Hamas killed three members of the Israel Defense Forces by firing about 10 rockets at the crossing, which is used to transmit aid from Israel into the Palestinian enclave.

The Jewish state is warning residents of eastern Rafah, many of whom fled fighting elsewhere, that they should relocate immediately — and the UNRWA, a United Nations agency set up for Palestinian aid, said that as of Monday, about 200 people were complying hourly, the New York Times reported.

Hamas leaders said Monday that they were willing to accept a phased cease-fire deal proposed by Egypt and Qatar in which the terror group would free dozens of civilians kidnapped from Israel, including five US citizens, in at least two batches.

Israel says the proposal isn’t sufficient, after previously agreeing to a US-proposed cease-fire that would have halted fighting for six weeks in exchange for the release of all hostages in Gaza and the release from Israeli prisons of 700 Palestinian inmates, including about 100 convicted of killing Israelis.

Hamas rejected that US-proposed plan, saying Israel would have to release all of the roughly 9,000 Palestinian prisoners held for anti-Israel activities.

Biden and Netanyahu have had an increasingly tense relationship as the US president’s re-election prospects have dimmed due to opposition to the Israeli invasion by important Democratic constituencies, including younger voters, Arab Americans and Muslim Americans.

On Sunday, Netanyahu rejected international pressure to halt the conflict, warning that “if Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone.”

“Eighty years ago in the Holocaust, the Jewish people were totally defenseless against those who sought our destruction. No nation came to our aid. Today, we again face enemies bent on our destruction,” he said.

“I say to the leaders of the world: No amount of pressure, no decision by any international forum will stop Israel from defending itself,” Netanyahu said, speaking in English at Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust memorial.

“We will defeat our genocidal enemies. ’Never again’ is now.”