Biden told Israel’s Netanyahu he must protect safety of refugees in Rafah: White House
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The call between US President Joe Biden and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu focused on ongoing efforts to secure the release of hostages.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
WILMINGTON - US President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Feb 11 that Israel should not proceed with a military operation in Rafah without a plan to ensure the safety of the roughly 1 million people sheltering there, the White House said.
Biden’s call with Netanyahu came days after the US leader told reporters that Israel’s response in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza was “over the top.”
The call also focused on ongoing efforts to secure the release of hostages taken by the Islamist group Hamas in its Oct 7 attack on Israel,
Aid agencies say an assault on Rafah would be catastrophic.
Biden “reaffirmed his view that a military operation in Rafah should not proceed without a credible and executable plan for ensuring the safety of and support for the more than one million people sheltering there,” the White House said in a readout of the two leaders’ Sunday morning call.
Netanyahu, in extracts of an interview published Feb 10 evening, insisted the Rafah operation would go ahead “while providing safe passage for the civilian population so they can leave.”
When pressed about where the population was supposed to go, Netanyahu said in the interview aired on Feb 11: “You know, the areas that we’ve cleared north of Rafah, plenty of areas there. But, we are working out a detailed plan.”
Not entering Rafah and confronting holdout Hamas battalions would amount to losing the war, the prime minister said.
“The President reaffirmed our shared goal to see Hamas defeated and to ensure the long-term security of Israel and its people,” the White House statement said.
“He also called for urgent and specific steps to increase the throughput and consistency of humanitarian assistance to innocent Palestinian civilians,” it added.
Health authorities in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, estimate about 28,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the region since the conflict began in October.
Palestinian health authorities say around 70 per cent of those killed are women or children under 18. The World Health Organization has described the Palestinian Health Ministry system for reporting casualties as "very good" and UN agencies regularly cite its death toll figures.
Hamas gunmen killed 1,200 Israelis and took around 250 hostages back to Gaza in an Oct 7 assault that triggered the conflict. REUTERS, AFP
