By Janet Ekstract NEW YORK -The U.S. State Department warned Israel on Tuesday, that any incursion into Rafah will damage Israel’s national security. As State Department spokesman Matthew Miller commented at a news conference: “It will leave Israel more isolated in the world. It will separate Israel from countries that have been longtime partners of Israel, and you’ve heard this from countries all around the world,” Miller reiterated the White House view that any full-scale operation will result in mass civilian casualties to Palestinians and prevent humanitarian assistance. Miller also underscored that the operation is not in Israel’s overall best interests especially since the international community and the U.N. have already urged Israel to fully comply with the new U.N. resolution on Gaza. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken who has made numerous trips back and forth to the Middle East, said just a week ago, that “it would be a mistake” to conduct a full-scale military operation in Rafah.
There are currently, at least 1.5 million Palestinians sheltering in Rafah because they have no other place to go as numerous analysts and strategists have pointed out. U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris cited this as well as Blinken – both stating that Israel has never presented the U.S. with any concrete plan of how all those civilians would be protected in the event of such an operation. Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had urged Israel to do all it could to protect Palestinians and told his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant that protecting Palestinians is a moral and strategic imperative. Austin labeled the situation in a Gaza a “humanitarian catastrophe” after he met with Gallant on Tuesday. Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a case brought by South Africa and where the ICJ issued an interim ruling in January that ordered Israel to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provide to civilians in Gaza. Turkiye and at least four other countries, presented evidence against Israel’s actions in Gaza at the ICJ. So far, Israel has largely ignored all calls for it to enable humanitarian aid to enter Gaza and for an immediate ceasefire. As U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk has sharply criticized Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid into Gaza. It was just a day ago that Israel said it would no longer permit humanitarian aid into northern Gaza which Phillipe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said is “astounding,” demanding that Israel reverse its decision. According to experts on the ground and aid agencies, Israel has not allowed any aid into the Gaza enclave since mid-January.
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