Blinken says major IDF operation in Rafah would cause damage ‘beyond what’s acceptable’

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has renewed his warnings against a major Israeli assault on the crowded Gaza city of Rafah, saying Israel has not presented a plan to protect civilians.

“Absent such a plan, we can’t support a major military operation going into Rafah because the damage it would do is beyond what’s acceptable,” Blinken tells the McCain Institute’s Sedona Forum in Arizona.

Over one million displaced Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah amid the ongoing war with Hamas, sparked by the terror group’s October 7 massacre in southern Israeli communities.

While Israeli officials have repeatedly vowed to enter Rafah, citing the need to take out Hamas’s remaining forces in the southernmost Gaza city, Blinken said yesterday that “there are also better ways to do what Israel needs to do in terms of dealing with the remaining Hamas problem.”