US President Biden believes Netanyahu is ‘listening’ to his concerns on Rafah

ISTANBUL

The US president said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “listening” to his concerns over the invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

"I think he's listening to me," Joe Biden told ABC News on Thursday.

“They were going to go into Rafah full bore — invade all of Rafah, go into the city, take it out, move with full force. They haven’t done that,” Biden added.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since an attack last Oct. 7 by the Palestinian group Hamas, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

Some 36,600 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 83,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.