WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden again urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against launching an offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah as Israel on Monday appeared to be moving closer to an offensive to root out Hamas militants.
But soon after Israel announced that it was ordering about 100,000 Palestinians to begin evacuating from Rafah, Hamas said in a statement it has accepted an Egyptian-Qatari proposal for a cease-fire to halt the seven-month-long war with Israel in Gaza.
Details of the proposal had not been released. Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says Israel will continue its operations in Gaza as Israeli officials deliberate the cease-fire proposal approved by Hamas. And the Israeli War Cabinet voted unanimously to approve a Rafah military operation but will continue cease-fire efforts.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said that Biden had been briefed on the matter. CIA Director William Burns, who was in Qatar for hostage talks with regional officials, was discussing the Hamas’ response with allies in the region. Kirby declined to discuss the parameters of what Hamas is saying it has agreed to.
“Bill Burns is looking at that response. He’s talking to the Israelis about it,” Kirby told reporters. “And we’ll see where this goes. Hopefully, it can lead to those hostages getting out real, real soon.”
In recent days, Egyptian and Hamas officials have said the cease-fire would take place in a series of stages during which Hamas would release hostages it is holding in exchange for Israeli troop pullbacks from Gaza.
Top Biden administration officials have been publicly pressing Hamas to accept what they have described as a generous offer by the Israelis that would also lead to an extended truce and the release of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli prisons and perhaps lay the groundwork for a permanent end to the current conflict.
The White House said Biden in a Monday morning phone call with Netanyahu underscored U.S. concerns about an invasion of Rafah, where more than 1 million civilians from other parts of Gaza are sheltering as the war sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel has led to the deaths of more than 34,000 Palestinians and deprivation in the territory.
Biden told Netanyahu that he still believes reaching a cease-fire with Hamas is the best way to protect the lives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, officials said. Israel says Hamas is holding about 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others in Gaza.
The leaders’ call occurred before Hamas announced it had accepted a cease-fire proposal.
“The president was consistent again this morning that we don’t support ground operations in Rafah,” Kirby said.
The latest developments come as Biden hosted King Abdullah II of Jordan for a private lunch meeting at the White House on Monday to discuss the war and hostage talks.
On Sunday, Netanyahu rejected international pressure to halt the war in Gaza in a fiery speech marking the country’s annual Holocaust memorial day, declaring: “If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone.”
“I say to the leaders of the world: No amount of pressure, no decision by any international forum will stop Israel from defending itself,” he said, speaking in English. “Never again is now.”
The Israeli army ordered about 100,000 Palestinians on Monday to begin evacuating from Rafah, signaling that a ground invasion there could be imminent and further complicating efforts to broker a cease-fire.
Tensions escalated Sunday when Hamas fired rockets at Israeli troops positioned on the border with Gaza near Israel’s main crossing for delivering humanitarian aid, killing four soldiers. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes on Rafah killed 22 people, including children and two infants, according to a hospital.
Netanyahu also told Biden that he would ensure the Kerem Shalom crossing between Gaza and Israel would remain open for humanitarian aid deliveries, according to the White House.
Israeli officials last week briefed Biden administration officials on a plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians ahead of a potential operation, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity to speak about the sensitive exchange, said that the plan detailed by the Israelis did not change the U.S. administration’s view that moving forward with an operation in Rafah would put too many innocent Palestinian civilians at risk.
Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had previously stressed with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that Israel needed a “credible plan” to evacuate those civilians and maintain humanitarian aid. Ryder said Austin had seen “the concepts” from the Israelis on their plan for an operation in Rafah “but nothing detailed at this point.”
Israeli officials said those being ordered evacuated would move from parts of Rafah to a nearby Israel-declared humanitarian zone called Muwasi, a makeshift camp on the coast.
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AP writers Tara Copp and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed reporting.