Israel has not violated President Joe Biden's red line about conducting a ground invasion in Rafah, the White House said Wednesday, even though the IDF admitted to killing 45 Palestinian refugees before bringing tanks into the southern Gaza city.
For months, the Biden administration has threatened to stop sending military aid to Israel in the event of a full-scale ground invasion in Rafah. In the weeks before Israel's attack on the Gazan city, which is packed with internally displaced Palestinians, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was critical of Israel's failure to provide a "credible plan" to mitigate civilian casualties.
Palestinian children "burned alive" in their tents on Monday, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees described conditions in Gaza as "hell on Earth" following the Israeli attacks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu characterized the killings as a "tragic mistake," while the international community condemned Israel's actions.
Days later, Rafah residents reported seeing tanks roll into their city.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, however, that Israel is not conducting a "major ground operation" in Rafah.
"A major ground operation is, you know, thousands and thousands of troops moving in a maneuvered, concentrated, coordinated way against a variety of targets on the ground," he said.
When journalists pressed the spokesman on how tanks entering a city did not constitute a ground invasion, Kirby deferred to the information that Israel had given the American government. Israeli officials claim that the tanks were only in one strategic area and "not in the town proper."
"That's what the Israelis have said," Kirby added. "We're going based on what the Israelis are telling us and what they're saying publicly and what we're able to discern, as best we can."
This information, however, directly contradicts accounts from eyewitnesses from inside Rafah.
"These vehicles advanced in the middle of the night," resident Salma Al Kadoomi told CNN, adding that she saw the tanks downtown near the Abu Hashem building. Another local - Alaa Abu Ibrahim - reported that there were tanks seen in the Al Awda roundabout, near the city center.
Hala Rharrit, a U.S. diplomat and seasoned foreign service officer who recently resigned from the State Department in protest of Washington's policy regarding Israel's war in Gaza, expressed that she believes the Biden administration is attempting to "wiggle their way out of this latest shift" on defining a "red line."
"The point of the president saying population centers were a 'red line' is to avoid mass civilian casualties," she stated in a phone interview with NBC News on Wednesday.
"Whether they're going in by tanks or it's happening via bombs coming from the air, are we really trying to mince words?"
