Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin believes it’s possible for Israel’s military to evacuate civilians out of Rafah safely and effectively before it starts a ground invasion, though he’s worried about Israel’s ability to execute such a plan.
More than a million Palestinians have fled from their homes to the southernmost Gaza city of Rafah, which is along the strip’s border with Egypt. It’s also where the last four Hamas battalions are hiding.
Several U.S. officials, including Austin, have said they do not support a full-scale ground invasion of Rafah unless the Israelis come up with a comprehensive plan of how to evacuate civilians who sought refuge there and provide them with food, medicine, and a place to sleep wherever they’re taken.
If the Israelis want to carry out operations in Rafah, “then those civilians must be accounted for and hopefully moved out of the area,” Austin told lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. “If they were going to conduct operations, we want to see a different approach to those operations as well.”
To date, more than 34,000 people have been killed in Israel’s war, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry, whose death toll does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. The Biden administration has publicly urged Israel for months to do more to prevent civilian casualties as it provided Israel with millions of dollars of military aid.
Also on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to invade Rafah.
“The idea that we will halt the war before achieving all of its goals is out of the question,” Netanyahu said, according to a statement from his office. “We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there — with or without a deal, in order to achieve the total victory.”
Austin affirmed to Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a lawmaker on the committee, that with his experience in urban warfare from his time in Iraq leading the campaign against ISIS, he could come up with a plan to evacuate significant numbers of civilians from Rafah.
“Do you really believe that there is a conceivable plan of evacuation that would save civilian lives and allow Netanyahu to go into Rafah — could you come up with such a plan?” the lawmaker asked, to which the secretary said, “I could.”
“Of course, we see some signs that they’re moving towards that direction, but in terms of all of the things that need to take place before an attack happens, and we’ve not seen a number of things that we believe will have to happen,” the secretary continued.
He said Israel has a plan, but the question is about whether it can execute it adequately.
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“They have a plan; the question is can you — are you executing the plan, and how much time are you allocating?” Austin said, adding that he’s more concerned with a “lack of execution” than a lack of planning.
“Do you have the ability to move them from where they are now to wherever you’re going to direct them to? And then, are you willing to protect them as you do that? So the housing, the medical care, all that stuff that needs to be in place, you know, we’ve seen some signs that some of that’s coming together,” he added.