Israeli operation in Gaza's Rafah would be a disaster, US warns

Palestinians at the site of a destroyed building from an Israeli air strike in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on January 14, 2024

The United States on Thursday warned that any Israeli military operation in Rafah, where more than one million people are sheltering, with no planning or little thought, would be a “disaster.”

“We would not support the undertaking of something like this without serious and credible planning as it relates to the more than a million people who are sheltering there, as well as without considering the impacts on humanitarian assistance and the safe departure of foreign nationals,” State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters.

The US had not seen evidence Israel had undertaken serious planning for such an operation, Patel said, despite US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meeting with Israel’s war cabinet on Wednesday.

Netanyahu: Israel ordered IDF to begin operating in Gaza’s Rafah

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the most direct statement to date about the IDF being ready to act in Rafah on Wednesday night.

“We have instructed the IDF to also take action in Rafah and in the two camps in the center [of Gaza], the last remaining strongholds of Hamas. The IDF will facilitate the civilian population to move away through a humanitarian corridor according to international law,” said Netanyahu.

Palestinians at the site of a destroyed police car after it was hit from an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, on February 7, 2024 (credit: ATIA MOHAMMED/FLASH90)

Palestinians at the site of a destroyed police car after it was hit from an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, on February 7, 2024 (credit: ATIA MOHAMMED/FLASH90)

Until now, Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and top IDF officials have repeated generic threats about eventually going into Rafah, but they had all refrained from any concrete statements, such as those made by Netanyahu.

However, multiple defense sources threw cold water on the idea that any major change in policy or imminent invasion of Rafah was taking place.

Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.