Turmoil in the Middle East has reached another tipping point as Israeli forces prepare to move through southern Gaza toward the Egyptian border.
US President Joe Biden’s calls for Israel to shield Palestinian civilians after an assault he described as “over the top” have stoked frictions with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu says Israeli forces must advance into the city of Rafah to eliminate Hamas, the Iran-backed group behind the Oct. 7 attack in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 abducted. Without that, Israel will never be safe again, officials and a growing number of Israelis say.
Rafah is where more than 1 million Palestinians have sought refuge. It’s a city dotted with tents and makeshift homes in densely populated clusters in what the United Nations has called a “pressure cooker of despair.”
Israel’s campaign has killed more than 28,000 people in Gaza so far, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Elsewhere, groups backed by Iran have carried out a record number of attacks on US and allied military assets and targeted shipping routes through the Red Sea. They’ve vowed to press on as long as the conflict in Gaza rages.
Talks are continuing mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar to secure a cease-fire with Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the US and the European Union. But progress is fragile.
However unlikely, the US could use this moment to push for a lasting peace deal with the establishment of an independent Palestinian state — anathema to Netanyahu and an increasingly difficult aim the longer the destruction of Gaza continues.
Yet four months since Biden embraced Netanyahu in Tel Aviv and urged a nation in mourning to temper its military response, Washington doesn’t seem to have the leverage. — Sylvia Westall