The US indicated its disapproval of Israel’s plans for a major military operation in Rafah, which has gained steam alongside new movements on the possibility of a hostage deal.
There is a “different way to go about dealing with the Hamas threat in Rafah,” US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters in Washington on Wednesday.
US and Israeli officials discussed this last week, he said. “We are still in those conversations.”
The Biden administration supports Israel’s goal of destroying Hamas but disagrees with how it plans to achieve that goal. It has stressed that it would only approve a Rafah operation that ensures Palestinian civilian safety.
Israel holds that a major military operation is necessary and that such a move is also an important pressure lever to push Hamas to make a deal.
On Wednesday Hamas released a video appearing to show that Israeli-US hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, was alive.
“Hersh should be home with his family,” Deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters in Washington on Tuesday as he explained that the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell were examining the short video that provided the first sign of life from the young man, who was among 253 people seized during the Hamas-led invasion of Israel on October 7.
Hamas released the video as Israel has taken public and visible steps to prepare for a military operation in Rafah, a move which is seen as a pressure lever to prompt Hamas to make a deal.
Israeli security officials meet with Egyptian officials
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar held talks with Egyptian officials on Wednesday. Egypt and Qatar, with the support of the US, are mediating a deal for the release of the remaining 133 hostages.
The war cabinet and the security cabinet are expected to meet on Thursday to discuss the possibility of a deal. According to Walla, new ideas will be presented at the meeting to help break the deadlock between Israel and Hamas.
“There is a deal on the table” that would see the “release of the sick, the wounded, the elderly, women – and there is a ceasefire,” Patel said as he described a deal that would see the release of 40 hostages in exchange for a six-week pause to the war.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US President Joe Biden won’t “rest for a single minute” until the hostages are freed, he said.
Khalil al-Hayya, of Hamas’s political bureau, told Al-Aksa TV that his organization was still sticking to its original demand that a deal must include a permanent ceasefire, rather than a temporary one.
Separately at the White House, Biden on Wednesday met with former hostage Abigail Edan and her family. The four-year-old girl was among the 105 captives freed in a November deal.
Maariv and Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.