US President Biden reminds Netanyahu that Rafah civilians must be protected

According to the White House, US President Joe Biden reminded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday not to move forward with military action in Rafah unless he had a workable and convincing strategy in place to safeguard Palestinian people.

During their Thursday phone conversation, Biden forewarned Netanyahu for the second time in less than a week about entering the southern Gaza Strip without a strategy in place to guarantee the protection of the approximately one million Palestinians who were taking refuge there.

According to the White House readout of the discussion, they also discussed the continuing hostage negotiations, and Biden promised to keep working nonstop to assist in the release of the hostages, who have been held captive by Hamas for 132 days.

Thursday’s announcement by Israeli troops that they had seized Gaza’s largest operational hospital sparked new concerns over what would become of the hundreds of patients, medical staff, and several displaced Palestinians who had taken refuge there during the conflict.

The hospital fighting occurs as Israel is under increasing international pressure to exercise moderation after announcing that it will continue its attack into Rafah, the only area of Gaza that is reasonably secure.

Biden voiced serious worry earlier this month about the growing number of civilian deaths in the Palestinian enclave and claimed that Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip had been “over the top”.

The war began on Oct. 7 when Iran-backed Hamas sent fighters into Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 253 hostages according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s air and ground offensive has since devastated tiny, crowded Gaza, killing 28,663 people, also mostly civilian, according to health authorities, and forcing nearly all its more than 2 million inhabitants from their homes.