AFP

Updated Tuesday, March 19, 2024-07:30

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The president of the United States,

Joe Biden

, stated this Monday that he asked

Benjamin Netanyahu

to send a delegation to

Washington

to discuss how to avoid a total attack on the city of

Rafah

, in the south of the

Gaza Strip

.

A request that the Israeli Prime Minister accepted.

"I asked the prime minister to send a team to Washington to discuss ways to attack Hamas without a major ground operation in Rafah," Biden said on the social network X after speaking with Netanyahu

for the first time since February 15

.

Biden also "reiterated the

need for an immediate ceasefire

as part of an agreement to release the hostages, lasting several weeks," in order to "bring them home and increase aid to civilians in Gaza."

Approximately 1.5 million people are sheltered in Rafah, most of them displaced by relentless Israeli retaliation in Gaza following the Islamist group Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7.

Earlier, the White House had reported that Biden conveyed to Netanyahu his "deep concern" about the plan to carry out a ground incursion in Rafah and that an offensive there would be a "mistake."

"A major ground operation there (Rafah) would be a mistake,

would lead to more deaths of innocent civilians

, worsen the already terrible humanitarian crisis, deepen the anarchy in Gaza and further isolate Israel internationally," the adviser told reporters. Homeland Security,

Jake Sullivan

.

Netanyahu

accepted the request to send a high-level delegation to the United States

to discuss those plans and the possibility of finding "an alternative," the official added.

But in a sign of the increasingly difficult relationship, Netanyahu said in a statement after the call that he had insisted to Biden that he intended to achieve all of Israel's war goals against Hamas.

Sullivan separately confirmed that

Israel had killed Hamas' third-in-command, Marwan Issa

, in an operation last week.

Israel had previously said that Issa had been the target of an airstrike in Gaza, but did not confirm his death.

Biden has supported Israel since the October 7 attacks, sending

billions of dollars in military aid

, but has recently launched increasingly vocal criticism of the number of Palestinian civilians killed and the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where the UN warned of a risk of famine.

The US president also faces growing political pressure at home, with opposition from Arab Americans and young people complicating his chances of re-election in November.