by President Biden said Monday that the major ground offensive Israel is expected to carry out in the southern Gaza city of Rafah should not continue without a “credible plan” to ensure the safety of more than 1 million people sheltered there.
Biden spoke after meeting Monday afternoon with King Abdullah II of Jordan, a key figure in pushing for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, in the first face-to-face conversation between the two leaders since the war. between Israel and Hamas. War has started.
The president said he and the Jordanian monarch discussed ceasefire talks, and Biden suggested a six-week pause in fighting that could allow the release of hostages held by Hamas and the forging of something “more lasting.”
Biden said he was particularly concerned about the situation in Rafah, where Israeli forces carried out a rare rescue mission early Monday to free two men held hostage for more than four months, and displaced Gazans fear an invasion. that will leave them nowhere to flee. .
“Many people there have been displaced, displaced multiple times fleeing violence to the north,” Biden said. “And now they are crowded in Rafah, exposed and vulnerable. “They need to be protected.”
The visit came as the king sought to build international support for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, which Biden has repeatedly rejected, and as the United States continued to pressure Israel to mitigate civilian casualties and displacement.
King Abdullah said an Israeli invasion of Rafah “would surely produce another humanitarian catastrophe.”
“The situation is already unbearable for more than a million people who have been pushed into Rafah since the war began,” he said. “We cannot stand by and let this continue. We need a lasting ceasefire now. “This war must end.”
Before the meeting, White House spokesman John F. Kirby said the United States continued to reject the idea of a general ceasefire that would permanently stop the fighting, but that President Biden also supported a humanitarian pause.
“We want the war to end as soon as possible,” he said. “And we believe that one of the first steps that is critical to achieving this is a humanitarian pause, an extended pause longer than what we saw in November of one week, which would allow us to get all the hostages out, get more help and assistance. and then, hopefully, lead to discussions that can bring us closer to an end to the conflict.”
Egypt and Qatar, acting as intermediaries between Israel and Hamas, have led talks aimed at stopping the fighting and freeing hostages held in Gaza. The Biden administration has been actively involved in those negotiations, working publicly and behind the scenes to try to advance a ceasefire agreement.
CIA Director William J. Burns was expected to travel to Cairo to continue talks Tuesday about the hostages, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity about the talks. Burns’ planned trip was revealed by a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel last week publicly dismissed a Hamas proposal, Israeli officials have signaled that his government is still open to negotiation. The mere fact that more talks are taking place in Cairo this week is seen as a positive sign.
Ahead of the meeting between Biden and King Abdullah, the White House said they would discuss “efforts to bring about a lasting end to the crisis” in Gaza, where health officials say more than 28,000 people have died since the start of the crisis. war.
Much of Jordan’s population is ethnically Palestinian, putting the country — a close U.S. ally that has a peace treaty with Israel — in a complicated position as it navigates the fallout from the war.
King Abdullah has repeatedly called for a immediate ceasefire and for him delivery of more humanitarian aid towards Gaza. He led a summit meeting in Jordan last month on the situation in the enclave and has been working closely with other Arab leaders to push for an end to the fighting.
Jordan and Israel share a border, as well as maintaining a crucial regional alliance. The kingdom is the custodian of the Aqsa complex in Jerusalem, a key holy site in Islam that is also revered by Jews, who call it the Temple Mount. The complex has often been a source of disputes between Israelis and Palestinians.
But relations between Jordan and Israel have become more strained in recent years. And since Israel launched a retaliatory war against Hamas in Gaza in response to the deadly October 7 attacks, King Abdullah has criticized how Israel has carried out its attack.
