Blinken says Israel has not told US about Rafah invasion start date

WASHINGTON

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that Israel has not informed the Biden administration about when it plans to invade the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that he has set a date for the ground operation to begin, bucking international opposition by saying that "no force in the world" will prevent him from carrying out the invasion.

Blinken said the US does not "have a date for any Rafah operation, at least one that's been communicated to us by the Israelis." He pointed instead to twice-delayed talks that the US is seeking to have with an Israeli delegation to present it with alternatives to a ground operation.

"What we have is an ongoing conversation with Israel about any Rafah operation. The president has been very clear about our concerns, our deep concerns, about Israel's ability to move civilians out of harm's way, to care for them once they're out of harm's way, and to have any kind of major military operation that doesn't do real harm to civilians," he said during a news conference with UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron.

"We are committed to ensuring that Hamas cannot govern, or dictate the future of Gaza or anything else for that matter. But how Israel conducts any further operations in Gaza matters a great deal and as we've said, we're talking to them about alternative, and in our judgment, effective ways at solving a problem that needs to be solved," he added.

Those talks are expected to happen next week after a meeting planned for this week was postponed. The talks were first abruptly called off by Netanyahu in late March in retaliation for Washington's decision not to veto a UN Security Council cease-fire resolution.

The reason for the most recent delay was not immediately clear, but it comes as Netanyahu faces growing pressure from members of his government to carry out the invasion, including from National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir who threatened Monday to topple the government.

Several countries, including the US, have urged Israel to abandon plans for a ground attack in Rafah. Some 1.5 million internally displaced Palestinians have sought refuge there on top of the 200,000 who lived in the city prior to the war.

International negotiations seeking to broker a wider cease-fire to halt the bloodshed in Gaza remain ongoing.

Cameron acknowledged that Washington and London are working on a "Plan B" in the event a cease-fire is not brokered, and Netanyahu follows through with his threats to invade Rafah.

"We have to think about what is Plan B, what can humanitarian and other organizations do to make sure that if there is a conflict in Rafah, that people can achieve safety, they can get food they can get water they can get medicine and people are kept safe," he said.

"And I think that's something we're gonna have to be looking at, and we were talking about today," he added.

US President Joe Biden warned Israel in the aftermath of last week's killing of seven international aid workers that future US support for the Israeli war hinges on Tel Aviv implementing major reforms, and emphasized during his telephone call with Netanyahu that "an immediate ceasefire is essential to stabilize and improve the humanitarian situation and protect innocent civilians" in Gaza.

Blinken said the US has had some progress in implementing the reforms, pointing to what he said was an unprecedented amount of aid trucks entering since Oct. 7 – more than 400 on Monday -- and Israel’s commitments "to significantly increase" the amount of aid entering the besieged territory.

He described Israeli actions taken so far as "initial," and said his administration is "looking at a number of critical things that need to happen in the coming days."

"What matters is results, and sustained results. And this is what we will be looking at very carefully in the days ahead. And that includes making sure that the assistance that gets into Gaza is distributed effectively throughout Gaza, not just in the south, or in central Gaza. It has to get to the north as well," he said.