Israel-Gaza: What Is the US Stance on Israel’s Rafah Operations?

The US does not believe Israel’s Rafah operations amount to a “major ground operation” that crosses a red line for President Joe Biden and triggers a possible change in US policy, the White House has said.

White House Spokesman John Kirby said this while talking to reporters hours after Israeli forces reached the centre of the southern city of Rafah in Gaza, and reportedly seized a strategically important hill, reports BBC.

Biden recently said he would limit supplies of arms to Israel if it entered Rafah’s “population centres”, where hundreds of thousands of civilians are still believed to be sheltering.

Journalists questioned Kirby about an Israeli strike and a fire that followed which killed at least 45 Palestinians on Sunday.

Many of the victims were women, children, or elderly, sheltering at a displaced camp.

Israel claimed the strike reportedly targeted and killed two “senior Hamas officials” and believed that the fire could have been caused by an explosion at a Hamas weapons storage nearby.

Speaking to reporters, Kirby termed the images from the strike’s aftermath as “heartbreaking” and “horrific”.

The US State Department said it was closely watching for the Israeli military to conduct an immediate probe into the strike.

When BBC correspondent Tom Bateman questioned whether such investigations in the past had led to accountability, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller declined to name specific cases.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Tuesday denied reports that its tank shells hit another tent camp in al-Mawasi, west Rafah, which had killed at least 21 people, as per local officials.

Video footage of the incident on social media platforms and analysed by BBC Verify showed multiple people with critical injuries.