Biden says doesn’t expect Israel to launch Rafah operation as hostage talks continue
US president insists ‘there has to be a temporary ceasefire to get the hostages out’; Herzog reportedly meets with Qatari PM on negotiations for return of Israelis held by Hamas
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
US President Joe Biden on Friday appeared to caution Israel against launching an operation in Rafah while hostage negotiations were ongoing, in his administration’s latest warning over an Israeli offensive in the southern Gaza city.
Asked at the White House whether Israel has presented the US with a plan for how it will protect civilians in the IDF’s planned operation for Rafah, as he again urged on Thursday during a call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden responded, “I’ve made the case, and I feel very strongly about it, that there has to be a temporary ceasefire to get the hostages out, and that is underway. I’m still hopeful that can be done.”
“In the meantime, I don’t anticipate, I’m hoping that the Israelis will not make any massive land invasion,” Biden said. “It is my expectation that’s not going to happen.”
“We’re in a situation where there are American hostages… It’s not just Israelis,” he added, referring to dual nationals with US citizenship.
“My hope and expectation is that we’ll get this hostage deal, we’ll bring the Americans home. The deal is being negotiated now, and we’re going to see where it takes us.”
Biden’s remarks came amid increasing international pressure on Israel not to move ahead with an operation in Rafah, the last major Hamas redoubt in the Gaza Strip, where 1.4 million displaced Palestinians have fled to seek shelter from fighting elsewhere.
Israel, which has said it will draw up a plan for civilians to evacuate before it enter, believes it cannot effectively weaken Hamas without taking Rafah, which sits on Gaza’s border with Egypt. At least some of the 134 hostages remaining in Gaza are thought to be in the city.
The US warnings on Rafah also came as Biden pushes to advance a hostage release agreement that would be accompanied by a halt in the fighting, with CIA Director William Burns visiting Israel on Thursday to discuss the ongoing negotiations with Israeli leaders.
Both topics were featured during a meeting Friday between US Vice President Kamala Harris and President Isaac Harris on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
“The vice president reiterated her steadfast support for Israel and its right to defend itself in the face of threats from Hamas, and she again condemned Hamas as a barbaric terrorist organization that perpetrated a horrific massacre on October 7,” said a White House readout on the meeting.
“The vice president and president discussed ongoing efforts to secure the release of all hostages held by Hamas and achieve a prolonged pause in fighting.”
“The vice president also emphasized the importance of protecting civilians, increasing humanitarian assistance and ensuring proper deconfliction mechanisms to ensure that aid can reach those in need inside Gaza,” the statement added.
“The vice president reaffirmed the Biden-Harris Administration’s position that a military operation in Rafah should not proceed without a credible and executable plan for ensuring the safety of and support for the more than one million people sheltering there.”
“The leaders also discussed ongoing planning for post-conflict Gaza and progress made on that front, and the vice president reiterated US positions, including that Israel must be secure, there must be no forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, and the Palestinians must enjoy their right to freedom, dignity, security, and self-determination,” the readout concluded.
While in Munich, Herzog also met with with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, the Walla news site reported, adding that the two discussed the ongoing negotiations aimed a securing the release of the remaining Israeli hostages.
Qatar has played a leading role in brokering the talks between Israel and Hamas, and helped mediate a weeklong truce in late November during which 105 hostages were freed.
Elsewhere in Munich, senior US, Arab and European officials convened Friday discus progress on formulating a plan for post-war Gaza that would be linked to normalizing ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, officials and diplomats said.
Blinken, Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and the foreign ministers of Jordan, Qatar, Germany, Britain, France and Italy were among those gathering on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference.
Officials said the meeting was the first in such a format amid the Israel-Hamas war, which was sparked by the October 7 onslaught in which Palestinian terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 253 hostages while rampaging through southern Israel.
The aim was for the US, European and Arab states to share discussions they have had on post-war Gaza, Israel-Saudi normalization, Israel’s wider integration into the region and security guarantees, a pathway toward a Palestinian state and how to reform the Palestinian Authority, a senior US official said.
Western and Arab states have shown divisions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and their response has mostly been to try to ease the humanitarian situation in the enclave.
However, with the number of civilian casualties increasing, officials said there was a sense of urgency to at least put something together for when there is an extended ceasefire.
“The Americans have been working with the Arabs so it’s good to hear what they have to say,” said a European diplomat whose foreign minister attended the meeting.
“It is useful because everybody is trying to get things moving. There’s even more urgency because of the impending attack on Rafah,” he said.
The European diplomat said that while the priority for Arab states was working with Washington, a potential victory by former US president Donald Trump in November’s presidential election could alter the landscape and bring more prominence to European links.
“It’s a format that Arab states could find useful going forward,” the diplomat said.
Times of Israel staff and Reuters contributed to this report.
