The United States said Monday it still opposed a major Israeli assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set.
President Joe Biden’s administration has repeatedly called on Israel to present a plan to protect civilians in Rafah, where some 1.5 million Palestinians have taken shelter from the six-month-old war.
“We have made clear to Israel that we think a full-scale military invasion of Rafah would have an enormously harmful effect on those civilians and that it would ultimately hurt Israel’s security,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters when asked about Netanyahu’s remarks.
“It’s not just a question of Israel presenting a plan to us. We have made clear to them that we think that there is a better way to achieve what is a legitimate goal, which is to degrade and dismantle and defeat the Hamas battalions that still remain in Rafah,” Miller said.
Netanyahu in a video statement Monday did not say when the incursion would incur into Rafah but said, “It will happen — there is a date.”
