US President Joe Biden is not expected to oppose the updated Israeli ground operation in Rafah, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius predicted on Tuesday.
Ignatius’s prediction comes as Israel prepares for a ground operation in Rafah, which American officials believe will be limited in scope.
Biden addressed Jewish community leaders and other elected officials at the White House on Monday to commemorate Jewish American Heritage Month.
Biden spoke of the various challenges facing American Jews, along with addressing Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel. He also rejected labeling Israel’s operations in the Gaza Strip as genocide.
“Let me be clear: we reject the ICC’s application for arrest warrants,” Biden said. “There’s no equivalence between Israel and Hamas. Contrary to allegations against Israel made by the International Court of Justice, what’s happening is not genocide. We reject that.”
IDF evacuates Rafah civilian population
These reports come amid the IDF’s evacuation of nearly 1 million Palestinian civilians from Rafah in just two weeks, with 30-40% of Rafah now under the IDF control.
The US had formerly predicted that the civilian population of Rafah would not be able to evacuate without a significant death toll or the evacuation taking months to complete. Much of the evacuated population moved to northwest and central Gaza, including a smaller portion of people returning to Khan Yunis.
Hannah Sarisohn and Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.
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