Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden in a phone conversation Monday to discuss Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza.
It was the first time the two men have spoken in a month.
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A spokesperson for the White House said the conversation was focused on Rafah — the southernmost Gaza city, on the enclave’s border with Egypt — where at least four Hamas battalions are believed to be preparing for battle, and where it is believed that many of the hostages still being held by the terrorist organization are located along with the terror group’s top echelon.
‘President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to discuss the latest developments in Israel and Gaza, including the situation in Rafah and efforts to surge humanitarian assistance to Gaza,” a spokesperson for the White House said in a curt statement.
Netanyahu was likewise circumspect about their conversation.
“This evening I spoke with US President Joe Biden,” the prime minister said in a separate statement.
“We discussed the latest developments in the war, including Israel’s commitment to achieving all of the war’s goals: Eliminating Hamas, freeing all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza never gain constitutes a threat to Israel – while providing the necessary humanitarian aid that will assist in achieving these goals.”
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US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan subsequently told reporters that Netanyahu told Biden during their conversation that he will send an interagency team to Washington to discuss “a potential military operation in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.”
But Netanyahu has been clear in repeated statements that the Israel Defense Forces will enter Rafah to pursue its goal of eliminating Hamas.
Tensions between the two leaders have been steadily rising; the Israel Defense Forces are preparing to enter Rafah in a final push to destroy the terror organization while evacuating more than a million civilians currently sheltering in the city after leaving their homes in prior combat zones.
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Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Monday announced plans to conduct a “major activity” in Rafah, after having evacuated the civilians to the western area of the city.
“Of course we will act in Rafah and before the major activity we will evacuate the residents from there to the western area,” Katz told Israel’s KAN News public broadcaster.
This weekend, Israel’s War Cabinet approved IDF plans for evacuation of civilians and a military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, along the Egyptian border.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu approved the plans for action in Rafah,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a brief statement. “The IDF was prepared for the operational side and for the evacuation of the population.”
The US has repeatedly said it will not support an Israeli military operation in Rafah without first seeing Israel’s plan to secure the civilians sheltering there.
Netanyahu has repeatedly warned that Israel cannot achieve victory in its fight for survival without eliminating Hamas and its four battalions still holed up in Rafah.
The prime minister warned Sunday in an interview on Fox News that if Israel’s greatest ally – the US – abandons Israel, nevertheless “If we’re alone, we’ll go it alone.”
