As Antony Blinken continued his Mideast visit in Cairo, Egypt on Thursday, the U.S.secretary of state repeatedly called on Israel not to pursue a planned ground invasion of Rafah, the Gazan city that is packed with Palestinians fleeing violence.
"We all share concerns," Blinken said during a joint press conference with his Egyptian counterpart Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, on Thursday evening local time.
"There are more than a million people in Rafah, many of whom were displaced from other parts of Gaza. A major ground operation there would mean more civilian deaths. It would worsen the humanitarian crisis. There is a better way to deal with the threat, the ongoing threat, posed by Hamas," President Biden's top diplomat said.
Blinken's denouncement of the ground invasion puts him and the Biden administration at odds with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insists that his country cannot achieve "total victory" against Hamas without invading the city.
Israel has engaged in a large-scale bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza since the October 7 attacks. Members of Hamas killed more than 1,000 Israelis and kidnapped an estimated 130 people. More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israeli retaliation, while international human rights observers caution that the entire region is at risk of famine.
Now, Israeli authorities have approved plans for a Rafah invasion that will be presented in Washington next week — though Netanyahu has emphasized he is only doing so "out of respect" for Biden.
When questioned by reporters as to how the United States would respond to Israel defying the American position on Rafah, Blinken demurred but reiterated the US' opposition.
"President Biden has been very clear that a major ground operation in Rafah would be a mistake and something we can't support. There is no place for the many civilians who are massed in [Rafah] to get out of harm's way," he said.
"Hamas can be effectively dealt with without a major ground operation. One of the reasons that we have counterparts from the Israeli government coming to Washington in the next week is precisely to focus on that - to share with them our views on what alternative actions could be."
