US says Rafah offensive would not eliminate Hamas as death toll tops 35,000
JERUSALEM
An all-out Israeli offensive on the Gaza city of Rafah would provoke "anarchy" without eliminating Hamas, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday, as death toll in the war had exceeded 35,000 people.
Separately, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan emphasized Washington's concerns about an offensive in a call with his Israeli counterpart, Tzachi Hanegbi.
"Mr. Sullivan reiterated President Biden's longstanding concerns over the potential for a major military ground operation into Rafah, where over one million people have taken shelter," a White House readout of the phone call said.
It said Hanegbi "confirmed that Israel is taking U.S. concerns into account," but did not elaborate.
Israeli bombardment in the eastern parts of Rafah have already sent 300,000 Gazans fleeing.
The United States and other countries, as well as top U.N. officials, have warned that a full-out assault on Rafah could have a disastrous impact on the refugees driven there by fighting elsewhere in Gaza, many of them living in desperate conditions.
Israel has said it is attempting to keep civilian casualties to a minimum.
But Blinken, when asked on CBS's "Face the Nation" whether the U.S. concurred with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement that Israeli forces had killed more civilians than Hamas militants since the war began, replied simply, "Yes, we do."
Blinken said a full-scale invasion could come "potentially at an incredibly high cost" and that even a massive assault on Rafah was unlikely to end the Hamas threat.
"Israel's on the trajectory, potentially, to inherit an insurgency with many armed Hamas left, or if it leaves, a vacuum filled by chaos, filled by anarchy and probably refilled by Hamas," he said.
Blinken also confirmed that the hold U.S. President Joe Biden has placed on weapons to Israel — as the U.S. continues pressing it to better protect civilians and avoid an all-out invasion of Rafah — is limited to 3,500 "high-capacity" bombs.
He said the United States was continuing to press Israeli leaders to provide a plan for Gaza once the war is finally over, telling NBC's "Meet the Press" that "we've been talking to them about a much better way of getting an enduring result."
The U.S. diplomat said Hamas militants had already returned to certain areas of northern Gaza that Israel had "liberated."
Death toll tops 35,000
Blinken also spoke Sunday with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, insisting again the United States opposed a major Israel ground operation in Rafah, the State Department said.
"The Secretary underscored the urgent need to protect civilians and aid workers in Gaza and urged the Minister to ensure assistance can move into Gaza and help address distribution challenges inside of Gaza as Israel pursues Hamas targets," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
Israel struck Gaza on Sunday and troops battled militants in several areas of the Hamas-run territory, where the health ministry said the death toll in the war had exceeded 35,000 people.
More than seven months into the war, U.N. chief Antonio Guterres urged "an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and an immediate surge in humanitarian aid."
Asked about a State Department report issued Friday that said Israel likely has violated norms of international law in its use of U.S. weapons, Blinken said there was still too little evidence to warrant ending all military support.
The chaotic and dangerous conditions of an ongoing war, he said, made it "very difficult" to determine exactly what was happening, or what weapons were used, in any specific action.
Fighting in northern Gaza -
Months after Israel said it had dismantled Hamas's command structure in northern Gaza, fighting has resumed in Jabalia refugee camp and Gaza City's Zeitoun neighbourhood.
Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Saturday that "in recent weeks we have identified attempts by Hamas to rebuild its military capabilities in Jabalia, and we are acting to destroy these attempts". He also said there was an operation in Zeitoun.
AFP correspondents reported intense clashes and heavy gunfire from Israeli helicopters in the Zeitoun area.
Israel defied international opposition this week and sent tanks and soldiers into eastern Rafah, effectively shutting a key aid crossing.
On Saturday, the Israeli military expanded an evacuation order for eastern Rafah and said 300,000 Palestinians had left the area.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said in a post on X Sunday Israel's evacuation orders were "forcing people in Rafah to flee anywhere and everywhere".
"No place is safe in Gaza," he said.
"We have reached a point where we wish for death," said Umm Mohammed Al-Mughayyir, adding that she has had to move her family seven times to escape the fighting.
U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk warned Sunday that the evacuation orders, "much less a full assault", could not be "reconciled with the binding requirements of international law" or two recent International Court of Justice rulings on Israel's conduct of the war.
And in a sign of surging regional tensions, Egypt on Sunday said it would formally support a case brought by South Africa at the ICJ, accusing Israel of committing genocidal acts in the war.
'No safe place'
Palestinians in Rafah, many already displaced by fighting elsewhere in the territory, piled water tanks, mattresses and other belongings onto vehicles and prepared to flee again.
"The artillery shelling didn't stop at all" for several days, said Mohammed Hamad, 24, who has left eastern Rafah for the city's west.
"We will not move until we feel that the danger is advancing to the west," he told AFP.
"There is no safe place in Gaza where we can take refuge."
Residents were told to go to the Al-Mawasi "humanitarian zone" on the coast northwest of Rafah, though aid groups have warned it was not ready for an influx of people.
Hisham Adwan, spokesman for the Gaza crossings authority, told AFP on Sunday the Rafah crossing has remained closed since Israeli troops seized its Palestinian side on Tuesday, "preventing the entry of humanitarian aid" and the departure of patients needing medical care.
He said Israeli forces "have advanced from the eastern border" about 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) into Rafah.
On Sunday, Israel's military said it had opened a new border crossing into northern Gaza as "part of the effort to increase aid routes to the Gaza Strip, and to the northern Gaza Strip in particular".