White House officials on Friday continued describing a possible Israeli military ground offensive into the Rafah area of Gaza in increasingly dire terms, as congressional Democrats have stepped up their criticisms of Israel’s conduct of its conflict with Hamas.
The Biden administration’s warnings came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday again raised the notion of sending military forces into Rafah, a relatively tight area near the Gaza-Egypt border. The Netanyahu government had directed Palestinian civilians to flee as it carried out military strikes in the central parts of Gaza. But on Friday, Netanyahu said he issued something of a warning to Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken during a war cabinet meeting in Israel.
“I told him that I greatly appreciate the fact that for more than five months we have been standing together in the war against Hamas,” Netanyahu said in a video statement. “I also said that we have no way to defeat Hamas without entering Rafah and eliminating the remnant of the battalions there.
