Israel is committed to winning the war, while the United States wants the war to end, an Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post after the Biden Administration expressed its opposition to a major Israeli military operation in Rafah.
“Americans want the war to end, and we want to win the war. And I hope that those two things can converge,” the Israeli official said.
US President Joe Biden spoke of his opposition to the Rafah operation in his phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.
The call had been preplanned, but it was held hours after the IDF began evacuating Palestinians from the eastern part of Rafah and before the IDF seized control of the Rafah crossing on the Gaza side.
The move comes as Israel is in the middle of negotiating a deal for the return of the remaining 132 hostages. It holds that the Rafah operation is an important pressure lever in those talks but also a necessary step in ending the war and ensuring the total defeat of Hamas.
The US supports the defeat of Hamas but wants Israel to do without a major military operation.
Conversation 'better than expected'
The Israeli official said of the Biden-Netanyahu conversation that it “was better than I expected. I think they were very candid toward one another. We were very clear about what we intended to do. They were very clear about what they want.”
US National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby and State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller both spoke out against a Rafah operation after the call, during briefings with reporters.
At issue for the US has been more than 1.3 million Palestinians in that area, many of whom fled there for safety from the north in the early stages of the war.
Kirby said, “We've made clear our views about operations in Rafah that could potentially put more than a million innocent people at greater risk.
“During his call with Prime Minister Netanyahu, the President again made this clear,” he stressed.
The Israeli official said that the US position has been that they are against a major operation but not any operation.
“They are not against defeating Hamas, and they are not against taking out Hamas leadership, but they want the war to end, and we also want the war to end with our total victory.
“The Prime Minister and the government are determined to achieve Israel's war objectives: Destruction of Hamas military and governing capabilities, free the hostages, and ensure that Gaza does not pose a threat to Israel and the civilized world in the future,” the official stated.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.