US says Israeli operation in Rafah ‘would be a disaster’ for Palestinians

Israel ‘has a specific obligation as they undertake operations there or anywhere else, to make sure that they’re factoring in protection for innocent civilian life,’ said the White House.

The United States cautioned on Thursday that an Israeli military action in Rafah “would be a disaster” for the more than 1 million displaced Palestinians who are sheltering there.

The White House and State Department reiterated that they had seen no information to suggest that such an operation is imminent, but warned of serious humanitarian consequences if it were to occur.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced hours earlier that the military will advance on the area near the Egyptian border, after ordering many Palestinians from elsewhere in the coastal enclave to seek refuge there.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the US has seen no “plans that would convince us that they are about to, or imminently, going to conduct any kind of major operations in Rafah.”

“There’s a lot of displaced people there, and the Israeli military has a special obligation as they conduct operations there or anywhere else, to make sure that they’re factoring in protection for innocent civilian life, particularly civilians that were pushed into southern Gaza by operations further north,” he went on to say.

“Absent any full consideration of protecting civilians at that scale in Gaza, military operations right now would be a disaster for those people, and it’s not something that we would support,” he said.

State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel repeated the remarks, saying the Biden administration “would not support the undertaking of something like this without serious and credible planning as it relates to the” security of civilians hiding in Rafah.

Netanyahu pledged to expand Israeli military operations into Rafah, claiming that the battle in Gaza will continue until Israel can declare “total victory” over Hamas.

Israeli airplanes hit buildings in Rafah and Deir al-Balah in the southern and central Gaza Strip overnight, killing at least 14 Palestinians and injuring numerous others, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported late Wednesday.

Following Hamas’ cross-border raid on Gaza on October 7, Israel unleashed a lethal offensive, killing at least 27,585 Palestinians and wounded 66,978 others, while over 1,200 Israelis are estimated to have been killed.

According to the UN, the Israeli offensive has internally displaced 85% of Gaza’s population, resulting in serious shortages of food, potable water, and medication, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.

Many of the refugees have sought refuge in Rafah.