Israel has not shown the Biden administration a "comprehensive plan" for its invasion of roughly where some 1.5 million displaced Palestinians have sought shelter, the White House said Friday as reports mount that Tel Aviv is gearing up for a full-blown military operation in the southern Gaza city.
Spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said Washington has been "clear" with Israel about its concerns about "any major military operations in" Rafah, in particular the need to protect the area's civilian population.
"We want to make sure that they are their lives are protected," she told reporters at the White House.
"We believe that the Israeli government is going to take our concerns into account. But we have not seen a plan, comprehensive plan, and we want to make sure that those conversations continue because it is important to protect those Palestinian lives, those innocent lives, those more than a million citizens who are seeking refuge in that part of Gaza in Rafah," she added.
The comments come after the Politico news website reported that Israel has briefed US officials and aid groups on its plan "to begin removing Gazans from Rafah," and forcibly relocate them again to neighboring al-Mawasi ahead of the beginning of the invasion.
Al-Mawasi is a small Gazan town on the coast northwest of Rafah. It is unclear how such an area could accommodate the roughly 1.7 million Palestinians in Rafah, about 1.5 million of whom took refuge there after being displaced earlier during the course of Israel's war on the besieged enclave.
The IDF has informed aid groups that it will begin its invasion "soon," two anonymous sources familiar with the matter told Politico.
The Wall Street Journal newspaper separately reported that Israel gave Hamas one week to agree to a temporary cease-fire deal that would see the release of 33 hostages with hostilities coming to a halt for 40 days. During that time, negotiations could continue for the release of further hostages and the potential extension of the truce.
But Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week that his forces would invade Rafah "with or without" a cease-fire agreement.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a cross-border attack led by Hamas, which killed about 1,200 people. At least 34,622 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, the vast majority of whom have been women and children, and 77,867 people have been injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.
