Biden says Israel should not press into Rafah without ‘credible’ plan to protect civilians

Israeli PM Netanyahu held call with Biden after Egypt threatened to suspend peace treaty with Israel if it sends troops into Rafah

Threat to suspend Camp David Accords, signed in 1978, came after Netanyahu said sending troops into Rafah was necessary to win war against Hamas

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An elderly woman walks past buildings heavily damaged by Israeli bombardment in Rafah, southern Gaza on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Published: 3:30am, 12 Feb 2024Updated: 3:55am, 12 Feb 2024

Israel should not go ahead with a military operation in the densely populated Gaza border town of Rafah without a “credible” plan to protect civilians, US President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, the White House said.

They spoke after two Egyptian officials and a Western diplomat said Egypt threatened to suspend its 1978 peace treaty with Israel if Israeli troops are sent into Rafah, where Egypt fears fighting could force the closure of the besieged territory’s main aid supply route.

The threat to suspend the Camp David Accords, a cornerstone of regional stability for nearly a half-century, came after Netanyahu said sending troops into Rafah was necessary to win the four-month war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas. He asserted that Hamas still has four battalions there.

US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv in October. Biden spoke to Netanyahu in a phone call on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

More than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have fled to Rafah to escape fighting in other areas, and they are packed into sprawling tent camps and UN-run shelters near the border. Egypt fears a mass influx of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who may never be allowed to return.

Netanyahu told the Fox News Sunday programme that there is “plenty of room north of Rafah for them to go to” after Israel’s offensive elsewhere in Gaza, and said Israel would direct evacuees with “fliers, with cellphones and with safe corridors and other things”.

The stand-off between Israel and Egypt, two close US allies, took shape as aid groups warned that an offensive in Rafah would worsen the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, where around 80 per cent of residents have fled their homes and where the UN says a quarter of the population faces starvation.

A ground operation in Rafah could cut off one of the only avenues for delivering Gaza’s badly needed food and medical supplies.