Israel briefed the Biden administration this week on its plan to evacuate Palestinians from Rafah ahead of its potential invasion of the southern Gazan city, US officials said.
The Israel Defense Forces told the White House and aid groups operating in the war-torn territory that they were looking to relocate people from Rafah to al-Mawasi, a narrow strip of coastal land in southern Gaza, sources told Politico.
The White House has warned Israel it may face consequences if it invades Rafah without any serious plans for protecting civilians’ lives.
“Absent such a plan, we can’t support a major military operation going into Rafah because the damage it would do is beyond what’s acceptable,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said late Friday at the Sedona Forum in Arizona.
The evacuation plan the Israelis shared with the US government was not finalized and discussions were ongoing, the officials said.
Roughly 1.5 million Palestinians have packed themselves into tents and shelters in and around Rafah, the vast majority having fled Gaza’s northern region amid Israel’s bombardments sparked by Hamas terrorists’ Oct. 7 attacks, when the terror group killed 1,200 people and kidnapped another 250.
The United Nations humanitarian aid agency on Friday warned that if Israel follows through with its Rafah operation, hundreds of thousands of people would be “at imminent risk of death,” in part because the border city with Egypt is a vital entry point for humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday told reporters that the Israelis had not shared any “comprehensive” plan for how it would evacuate Gazans from Rafah.
The operation, however, came up in talks between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as top Israeli and U.S. national security officials, she said.
News of the evacuation planning for Israel’s Rafah operation came as CIA director William Burns arrived Friday in Egypt, where negotiators are working to finalize a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas.
Earlier this week, Netanyahu vowed to invade Rafah and eliminate Hamas’ presence there, regardless of any ceasefire agreements reached.
With Post wires.