by Mediators in Cairo pressed Tuesday for a deal to stop the war in the Gaza Strip as international concern grew over Israel’s plan to continue its ground offensive in the southern city of Rafah, where nearly half of the population of the territory has sought refuge.
President Biden dispatched CIA Director William J. Burns to join the talks and said he had spoken with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar to “push this forward” over the past month.
The negotiations came as the United Nations, the United States and other countries have expressed growing alarm at the prospect of an Israeli incursion into Rafah, where around 1.4 million people are sheltering, many of them in tents, without adequate food, water or medicine.
Netanyahu has ordered the military to draw up plans to evacuate civilians from the city, but many Palestinians say nowhere in the territory is safe. Biden has said the United States opposes an Israeli invasion of the city without a “credible plan” to protect civilians from harm. Egypt has said it will not allow refugees to cross the border into the Sinai.
Negotiators in Cairo, Biden said, hoped to reach a deal between Israel and Hamas that would free the remaining hostages in Gaza and halt the fighting for at least six weeks. Burns met with the head of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, the prime minister of Qatar and Egyptian officials. according to Al Qahera, an Egyptian state television channel.
John F. Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said Tuesday that the talks were “moving in the right direction” but declined to provide details. Israel and Hamas, however, remain far apart in their publicly stated positions and have shown no signs of budging. Israel, for example, has said it will not stop fighting in Gaza until Hamas is crushed and the hostages are freed.
“Nothing is done until everything is done,” Kirby told reporters at the White House.
Asked if the United States believes the American hostages in Gaza are still alive, he said: “We don’t have any information to indicate otherwise.”
The expected Israeli advance towards Rafah has led to increasing pressure on Egypt, which controls a major border crossing into the city.
Instead of opening its border to give Palestinians refuge from the expected attack, Egypt has reinforced its border with Gaza.
There have been fears that any Israeli military action sending Gazans into Egyptian territory could jeopardize the decades-old peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, an anchor of stability in the Middle East. But on Monday, Egypt offered assurances that the treaty would stand.
Netanyahu has described Rafah as the last stronghold of Hamas. On Monday, after Israeli forces freed two hostages held in the city in a nighttime commando operation, he said that “only continued military pressure, until complete victory, will achieve the release of all our hostages.”
But the rescue operation coincided with a wave of Israeli attacks that killed dozens of people in Rafah, Gaza health authorities said, pointing to the risks to civilians of a full-scale invasion of the city. Pressure is also mounting from within Israel, where groups like the Hostage Families and Missing Persons Forum They have asked the government to reach an agreement for their freedom.
“The eyes of 134 hostages are watching you,” the group said Tuesday in a statement to the head of the Mossad and the head of the Shin Bet, who are in Cairo for talks. “Don’t give up and don’t come back without an agreement.”
Officials at the United Nations and the International Criminal Court have warned of catastrophic consequences if Israeli forces invaded the city.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, said an incursion into Rafah would jeopardize the delivery of essential aid through the city’s border crossing with Egypt.
The United Nations, he indicated, would not participate in Israel’s evacuation plans.
“We will not be part of the forced displacement of people,” Dujarric said. “As things stand, there is currently nowhere that is safe in Gaza.”
Karim Khan, chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, said he was “deeply concerned” about a large-scale ground offensive in Rafah and hinted at the possibility of a war crimes prosecution.
“All wars have rules and the laws applicable to armed conflict cannot be interpreted in a way that leaves them empty or meaningless,” he said in a statement. posted on social media.
