US, Israel set new talks on plan to invade Rafah

Israeli and U.S flags are reflected on a conference table where Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, at the Pentagon, on March 26, 2024, in Washington. [AP Photo]

In a reversal, Israel agreed Wednesday to send its war strategists to Washington to discuss its intention to launch a ground assault on Hamas militants in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

On Monday, Israel had called off the trip in protest against the U.S. refusal to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.

The United States, Israel's staunchest ally in the nearly six-month war, abstained from this week's U.N. vote after vetoing similar resolutions earlier. That drew a rebuke from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, evidence of a growing split with Washington over the Jewish state's conduct of the war.

But even as Netanyahu called off a trip by one set of his war strategists, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was in Washington for talks this week with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Netanyahu has said a Rafah attack is necessary to erase any Hamas control of Gaza, the narrow enclave along the Mediterranean Sea. But the U.S. has told Israel it is opposed to a Rafah invasion, especially since more than a million Palestinian civilians are sheltered there in makeshift tents and structures.

Israel has said it will move the Palestinians to safety before any attack on four Hamas battalions based in Rafah, but it has not indicated where it will send them.

While maintaining that the U.S. abstention was "very, very bad," Netanyahu told visiting U.S. Republican Senator Rick Scott that his initial cancellation of the Israeli delegation's trip "was a message first and foremost to Hamas: Don't bet on this [United Nations] pressure [for a cease-fire]. It's not going to work."

Netanyahu said the Security Council vote "encouraged Hamas to take a hard line and to believe that international pressure will prevent Israel" from achieving its war aims. Israel has vowed to keep fighting until the Hamas military is destroyed and the remaining 100 or so hostages it is holding are freed.

The White House said that it was "a good thing" to hold more talks with Israeli officials and that a date was being discussed.

Hezbollah rocket strikes

On the war front, Hezbollah militants in Lebanon launched rockets Wednesday at northern Israel in retaliation for Israeli airstrikes that killed seven people in southern Lebanon.

Israeli emergency services said one person was killed by a rocket strike in the border town of Kiryat Shmona.

The Israeli military said its strikes in Lebanon targeted a military building, killing a member of the al-Jamaa al-Islamiya militant group who had promoted terror plots directed at Israel.

An al-Jamaa al-Islamiya official said seven people were killed in the village of Hebbariye, with Lebanese security sources confirming the death toll.

Israel's military also reported Wednesday that it had conducted ground operations near the Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, while carrying out airstrikes and ground fighting in the Khan Younis area in Gaza's southern reaches.

Efforts to temporarily halt the fighting, with proposals that included the release of hostages held in Gaza and a surge of humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians, appeared no closer to reality even after last Friday's U.N. Security Council resolution demanding a cease-fire.

Indirect talks featuring negotiators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar have gone on for weeks, and while officials signaled some progress during the process, the Israeli and Hamas sides this week have shown no movement toward an agreement.

A senior Israeli official told Reuters on Tuesday that Israel had recalled its negotiators from Qatar after reaching "a dead end" in talks to release the hostages still held by Hamas. Israel believes more than 30 other Israelis taken in the shock October 7 Hamas attack on Israel have died or been killed. Netanyahu has said Hamas is making "delusional demands."

Hamas officials said Monday that they had told negotiators Hamas would not alter its proposal, which includes a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and an exchange of hostages held in Gaza for prisoners held by Israel.

In Tel Aviv, about 300 family members of hostages and their supporters gathered Tuesday outside the Israeli defense headquarters, demanding that a deal be reached on releasing the hostages. Some of the protesters locked themselves inside cages and held placards with photos of their loved ones.

The October 7 Hamas attack killed 1,200 people and led to the capture of about 250 hostages. More than 100 were released in November during a weeklong cease-fire.

The Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says more than 32,400 people have been killed during Israel's counteroffensive. The total includes Hamas fighters and civilians, with the ministry saying two-thirds of the dead have been women and children.