Enlarge image
Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu
Photo: Evelyn Hockstein / REUTERS
Urgent warning: US President Joe Biden described a planned ground offensive by the Israeli army in the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip as a “mistake” in a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Biden told Netanyahu that he was "deeply concerned" about these plans and that such a military operation would be a "mistake," said White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Monday.
Accordingly, Netanyahu agreed to a request from Biden to send a delegation of high-ranking Israeli representatives to Washington to discuss plans for the offensive and a possible “alternative approach.”
The US President and the Israeli Prime Minister last spoke to each other on February 15th.
Sullivan described the current conversation as “businesslike.”
The USA had joined forces with Israel after the brutal major attack by Hamas on October 7th.
The US also helped Israel with continued payments worth billions of dollars.
But in view of the high number of civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip and the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory, Biden has recently expressed increasingly clear criticism of Netanyahu's actions.
"The president explained why he is so deeply concerned about the prospect of Israel conducting a major military operation in Rafah," Sullivan said.
"A major ground offensive there would be a mistake; it would lead to more innocent civilian deaths, worsen the already terrible humanitarian crisis, deepen the anarchy in Gaza and isolate Israel internationally."
Biden on Friday praised Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer's speech on Israel.
Biden's party colleague had called for new elections in Israel and described Netanyahu as an "obstacle to peace."
The Israeli head of government said he confirmed in his phone call with Biden that Israel was determined to achieve all of its goals in the war against Hamas.
According to a statement from his office, Netanyahu called this the destruction of Hamas, the release of all hostages and the creation of the conditions so that the Gaza Strip "will never pose a threat to Israel."
dop/AFP