Like Israeli forces Pushed deep into Rafah a few days later the airstrike caused a huge fire that killed dozens of people The Palestinians, he said, are allies of the White House has not passed The “red line” of the Biden administration.
Israeli tanks were seen entering central Rafah for the first time on Tuesday, as global condemnation grew over deaths in the crowded tent camp for displaced civilians. The US has stopped sending aid by sea to Gaza after its temporary pier was damaged.
But National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at a briefing that the United States “does not turn a blind eye” to Israeli operations in southern Gaza, where nearly 1 million Palestinians have fled in recent weeks.
He said the Biden administration did not believe Israel’s actions in Rafah so far were a “major ground operation” that would defy President Joe Biden’s warnings and lead to a change in US policy, including a threat to cut off arms supplies.
“A major ground operation, you know, is 1,000s and 1,000s of troops moving in a maneuvered, concentrated, coordinated manner against various targets on the ground,” he said.
Biden told CNN earlier this month: “I’ve made it clear that if they go to Rafah — they haven’t gone to Rafah yet — if they go into Rafah, I’m not going to provide the weapons that have historically been used to fight Rafah. , dealing with cities dealing with this problem.”
Asked by NBC News’ Gabe Gutierrez how Israeli tanks approaching the center of the Gaza Strip did not represent a full-scale ground operation, Kirby said Israeli officials claimed their tanks were moving along the Philadelphia Corridor. Egypt-Gaza border, and “not right in the city”.
“That’s what the Israelis say,” Kirby replied. “We’re going by what the Israelis have told us and what they’ve said publicly and what we can discern as best we can.”
Kirby’s comments came days after an Israeli airstrike set off a fire at a tent camp in Rafah’s Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, killing at least 45 people, including children, according to local health officials.
The attack added to growing international pressure after the United Nations high court He ordered Israel to stop Rafah attack. According to the Associated Press news agency, the United Nations Security Council may vote on Wednesday on a draft resolution calling for an immediate end to the Algerian attack on Israel and a cease-fire in Gaza.
At a briefing Tuesday, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Israel was still investigating the attack, including the cause of the fire that “resulted in this tragic loss of life.”
Hagari said the IDF fired two 17-kilogram (37.5-pound) munitions targeting two senior Hamas militants, but he said some kind of fire had ignited, adding that the fire was “unexpected and unexpected.”
He raised the possibility that weapons stored in the targeted area could have ignited the fire, but said that was “speculation” at this time. An Israeli official and a US official separately told NBC News that the fuel tank may have been hit and started the fire.
Footage from the strike put pressure on the US to act.
Asked at a White House briefing on Tuesday how many “burned bodies” Biden would need to see before changing policy, Kirby said he was “offended” by the question, saying: “We don’t want to see one innocent life taken.”
The US also warned Israel against launching a full-scale ground invasion of Gaza early in the war, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly announced plans to do so.
But after months of unveiling plans for a large-scale invasion, Israeli ground forces quietly entered the Gaza Strip in late October with little fanfare to avoid angering America. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, the IDF’s entry into Gaza marked the beginning of a month-long ground offensive that has killed more than 36,000 people.
Israel launched an attack after the attacks of Hamas on October 7, in which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 people were taken hostage. According to Israeli officials. About 125 people are believed to be detained in Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to have died.
Biden’s warning about the US “red line” is reminiscent of former President Barack Obama’s warning. In August 2012, the use of the phrase itselfwhen he warned against the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war.
Critics have accused Obama of allowing political rival John McCain to cross the border without US action. Saying the red line of the Obama administration it seemed to be “written in vanishing ink.”
Gabe Gutierrez, Raf Sanchez, Abigail Williams, Monica Alba and Gael Fobes contributed.