Netanyahu says Israel ‘determined’ to carry out ground operation in Rafah despite Biden plea

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told lawmakers Tuesday that he made it “supremely clear” to president Joe Biden that he would not call off a planned ground assault of Rafah as the president urged him to do a day before. 

 “We are determined to complete the elimination of these battalions in Rafah, and there’s no way to do that except by going in on the ground,” Netanyahu said of his military’s campaign in the southern city that had been a sanctuary for more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million displaced residents.

The comments came two days after he denounced a speech by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that called on Israeli’s to oust their warring leader in new elections, comments that were endorsed by Biden.

US diplomats, meanwhile, launched a new push for a ceasefire in Gaza Tuesday as Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced he would visit the region and meet with leaders of Egypt and Saudi Arabia to “discuss the right architecture for a lasting peace.”

Israel is the top recipient of US aid and military support, but the staunch partnership has become increasingly frayed as the war drags on. 

Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes killed 14 people in Rafah Tuesday. Dazed survivors staggered in the streets as relatives of the dead wailed next to corpses at a hospital morgue, one of them peeling back a tiny bloodstained shroud to reveal she was rocking a small boy in her arms.

“There’s US support, European support and support of the whole world for Israel, they support them with weapons and planes,” said one mourner, Ibrahim Hasouna. “They mock us and send four or five airdrops (of aid) just to save their faces.”

A senior police commander and his wife and children were killed in airstrikes over the Jabalia district overnight in northern Gaza, and a police chief was killed in an attack on a car in Al-Nuseirat Tuesday, marking the second and third top police officials slain in two days, according to Hamas.

The strike on the vehicle also killed four others, the group said.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification hunger monitor said Monday that Gaza had far surpassed famine levels, which would soon result in mass starvation without a ceasefire.

Israel had said it is not to blame for hunger in the enclave and had opened new aid routes by land, sea and air, after having only allowed relief supplies at two southern checkpoints.

The country said the United Nations should be doing more to feed Palestinians, but the UN countered that it needed better access and security from the invading Israeli military.

“The extent of Israel’s continued restrictions on entry of aid into Gaza, together with the manner in which it continues to conduct hostilities, may amount to the use of starvation as a method of war, which is a war crime,” said U.N. Human Rights Office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence.

Ceasefire discussions were set to resume this week in Qatar after Israel rejected a counter-proposal last week from the terror group that murdered 1,200 Isrealis on Oct. 7.

A delegation from the Jewish state traveled to the nation Monday, as an official said that any agreement could be weeks away.

At stake is a six-week truce that would see dozens of remaining Israeli hostages freed by Hamas in exchange for hundreds of prisoners and an avalanche of aid.

The ruling militant group said it would not release hostages without a plan to end the war, which Israel would not commit to.

A Palestinian mediator said the new round of talks were expected to be “very tough.”

With Post wires