Israel-Gaza war, live | US denies Israel has launched a major ground operation in Rafah that would force it to change policy International

The US denies that Israel has launched a major ground operation in Rafah that would force it to change its policy

The US does not believe that Israel has launched a major military operation in Rafah that would cause it to change its policy toward Israel. On Tuesday night, White House national security spokesman John Kirby defined in the clearest way possible what an operation that Washington would condemn would look like: “We have not seen them (Israeli forces) enter Rafah, we have not seen them come in with large units, large numbers of troops in columns and formations in some type of coordinated maneuver against multiple targets on the ground. This is a major ground operation. We have not seen that,” Kirby said.

Kirby’s statement came on the same day that Israeli tanks and armor arrived for the first time in the center of the city of Rafah on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, according to witnesses and television images. They entered from the south and east. According to UN estimates, one million people have fled the city during the past three weeks as Israeli forces advanced and ordered to move to the “humanitarian zone” of Al Mawasi.

When asked about this military advance into the center of Rafah, Kirby said that as far as he believed, “and the Israelis have talked about this, they are moving along something called the Philadelphia corridor, which is on the outskirts of the city, not in the city itself.” The US spokesman added, “We have not seen any major ground operations and these tanks are moving along a corridor that they previously told us they were going to use on the outskirts of the city to try to pressure Hamas.”

On Sunday, an Israeli attack set a tent camp in Rafah on fire, killing 45 people, an incident Israel is investigating. At first, Prime Minister Netanyahu admitted “a tragic mistake,” but later official Israeli sources reported that the fire was started by a Hamas weapons depot. “I don’t know how anyone can argue that Israel is trying to go after Hamas in a limited and precise way,” Kirby said, adding that the US is awaiting the Israeli investigation of the attack. “As a result of this attack on Sunday, I have no policy changes to report. It just happened,” he said. “The Israelis are going to investigate it, we’re very interested in what they find, we’ll see where that takes us.”

The US has repeatedly warned Israel against launching a large-scale invasion of the city. Although one million people have now fled, the city was home to more than 1.2 million displaced people from other parts of Gaza, so the entire international community as well as Washington opposed an operation without a detailed protection plan for civilians that Israel had not presented. In fact, Israel claims it has launched only a limited invasion of the city.

Last week, the UN International Court of Justice ordered Israel to stop the offensive in Rafah. Israel does not recognise the court and has ignored it. The TIJ also does not have a mechanism to enforce its sentences. (Reuters)