Israel and the United States are expected to participate in a virtual meeting about the IDF’s pending Rafah operation and the Biden administration’s proposed alternatives to a full-scale invasion of the southern Gaza city, Walla! reported, citing four senior Israel and American officials.
The United States opposes an operation in Rafah, Hamas’s last bastion in Gaza, on a scale similar to those carried out by Israel in Gaza City and Khan Yunis. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already ordered preparations for the attack, which Jerusalem views as necessary to achieve its war goal of defeating of the terrorist group.
According to Israel, the final four Hamas battalions, composed of some 3,000 terrorists, are holed up in the city along the Egyptian border. There are also well over a million Gazans sheltered there, who Netanyahu has emphasized will be relocated before the ground operation, as has occurred in other combat zones during the nearly six-month-long war.
The meeting was originally scheduled for last week and was to be an in-person affair at the White House involving Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and head of the National Security Council of Israel Tzachi Hanegbi, but was canceled by Netanyahu after the United States failed to veto a U.N. Security Council vote on March 25 decoupling for the first time a demand for a ceasefire from the release of the hostages held by Hamas.
However, the White House said on March 27 that Netanyahu agreed to reschedule the meeting.
A senior Israeli official told Walla! that the virtual meeting would allow Netanyahu to “climb down from the tree” without sending a delegation to Washington.
The meeting will take place via secure video conference call and will include U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and other American officials, with the Israeli side represented by Dermer and Hanegbi along with other senior officials.
An Israeli official said that another meeting is scheduled for next week that will include an Israeli delegation visiting Washington.
