Israel has addressed many of US President Joe Biden's concerns over its widescale military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah aimed at rooting out Hamas, a senior Biden administration official told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that in talks over the weekend with White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Israeli officials incorporated many changes into their planning that seem to meet concerns about deepening the operation.
The official said the administration stopped short of greenlighting the Israeli plan but said Israeli officials' altered planning suggested they were taking the American administration’s concerns seriously.
The US had previously been vocal in its opposition to an Israeli operation in Rafah. Biden recently warned that he would halt shipments of American weapons to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.
Sullivan, who met Netanyahu in Israel earlier this week, “reiterated the President’s longstanding position on Rafah”, according to a White House statement released after the meeting.
The US official’s comments followed a report in The Washington Post which said that Israeli leaders have reached final consensus on an operation in Rafah and the US is not expected to oppose it.
According to the report, instead of a heavy attack with two divisions, Israel will conduct a more limited attack, which US officials believe will result in fewer civilian casualties. It is for this reason that the US is not likely to oppose the Rafah strike.