Biden administration not expecting Rafah operation to begin in near future – report

Two US officials tell CNN that the Biden administration is not expecting Israel to expand the Gaza ground operation to Rafah in the near future.

The comments by the unnamed officials come at the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

In comments published by Politico yesterday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to defy international warnings against invading the southern Gazan city.

Israel has vowed to move into Rafah to eliminate the last Hamas stronghold there. It also believes that some of the hostages and Hamas leaders are in Rafah. Earlier this month, special forces rescued two Israeli hostages from captivity in an apartment in the city.

However, in a hard-hitting interview published by MSNBC Saturday, US President Joe Biden highlighted deep US concerns over civilian deaths in Gaza and called the planned IDF operation in southern Gaza’s Rafah a “red line.”

Over half of the Gaza Strip’s population has fled to Rafah during the war sparked by Hamas’s devastating attack on October 7. The offensive in Gaza has displaced most of the enclave’s 2.3 million people and led to critical shortages of food, water and medicine.