Israel-Gaza war: US declares it won’t support unplanned Rafah offensive

• The US warns Israel of a “disaster” if a military offensive is staged in Rafah without proper planning.
• 1.5 million Palestinians are living in dire humanitarian conditions in Rafah, bordering Egypt.
• US President Joe Biden criticized Israel’s actions in Gaza as “over the top.”

The US has warned Israel that staging a military offensive into Gaza’s southern city of Rafah without proper planning would be a “disaster”. Some 1.5 million Palestinians are surviving in the city bordering Egypt in dire humanitarian conditions.

The White House said it would not support major operations without due consideration for the refugees there. The comments come days after Israel’s leader said he had instructed the military to prepare to operate in Rafah. On Thursday evening, US President Joe Biden criticized Israel’s actions in Gaza as “over the top.”

Officials from the Hamas-run health ministry reported that Israeli air strikes on Gaza on Friday killed at least 15 people, including eight in Rafah. Israel did not immediately comment.

The majority of people in Rafah, displaced by fighting from other parts of Gaza, are living in tents.

Rafah people:

Garda al-Kourd, a mother-of-two who claimed six displacements during the war, expressed anticipation of an Israeli assault but held hope for a ceasefire agreement before its occurrence.

“If they come to Rafah, it will be the end for us, like we are waiting for death. We have no other place to go,” she told the news from a relative’s house in Rafah where she was living with 20 other people.

Earlier, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the Israeli military had a “special obligation as they conduct operations there or anywhere else to make sure that they’re factoring in protection for innocent civilian life”.

“Military operations right now would be a disaster for those people and it’s not something that we would support,” he said, adding that the US had not seen anything to suggest Israel was going to launch a major operation in Rafah imminently.

Deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel echoed Mr Kirby’s comments, stating, “We [the US] would not support the undertaking of something like this without serious and credible planning.”

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