Lapid to meet with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan at the White House

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will meet at the White House with visiting Opposition Leader Yair Lapid later today in addition to a separate meeting with the families of some of the American hostages being held in Gaza, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby tells reporters during a briefing.

An in-person follow-up to last week’s virtual gathering of top Israeli and US officials to discuss a potential IDF offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah will likely not take place in Washington until next week, Kirby says.

The White House spokesman says that Israel has assured the US that it will not launch a major ground operation in Rafah before it holds this in-person meeting in Washington, Kirby says.

“We don’t see any signs that such a major ground operation is imminent or that these troops [being withdrawn from Khan Younis] are being repositioned for that kind of ground operation,” he says.