Mediators in Cairo were pushing Tuesday for a deal to end the war in the Gaza Strip as international concern grew over Israel’s plan to launch a ground offensive on the southern town of Rafah, where nearly half the territory’s population has sought refuge.
President Biden sent CIA Director William J. Burns to join the talks and said he had spoken with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar to “move this forward” last month.
The negotiations took place as the United Nations, the United States and other countries have expressed growing concern over the prospect of an Israeli invasion of Rafah, where some 1.4 million people are sheltering, many in tents, without adequate food, water and medicine.
Mr Netanyahu has ordered the army to draw up plans to remove civilians from the city, but many Palestinians say no place in the area is safe. Mr. Biden said the United States opposes an Israeli invasion of the city without a “credible plan” to protect civilians from harm. Egypt has said it will not let refugees cross the border into Sinai.
Negotiators in Cairo, Mr. Biden said, hoped to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas that would free the remaining hostages in Gaza and halt the fighting for at least six weeks. Mr Burns met with the head of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, Qatar’s prime minister and Egyptian officials, according to Al Qahera, an Egyptian state television channel.
John F. Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said Tuesday that the talks were “going in the right direction” but declined to elaborate. Israel and Hamas, however, remain far apart in their publicly stated positions and have shown no signs of backing down. Israel, for one, has said it will not stop fighting in Gaza until Hamas is crushed and the hostages are freed.
“Nothing is done until everything is done,” Mr. Kirby told reporters at the White House.
Asked if the United States believed the American hostages in Gaza were still alive, he said: “We have no information to the contrary.”
The expected Israeli advance on Rafah has led to mounting pressure on Egypt, which controls a major border crossing into the city.
Instead of opening its borders to give Palestinians refuge from the expected attack, Egypt has reinforced its border with Gaza.
There have been fears that any Israeli military action that sends Gazans spilling into Egyptian territory could jeopardize the decades-old peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, an anchor of stability in the Middle East. But on Monday, Egypt offered assurances that the treaty would stand.
Mr Netanyahu has described Rafah as Hamas’s last stronghold. On Monday, after Israeli forces freed two hostages held in the city in a nighttime commando operation, he said “only continued military pressure, until total victory, will bring about the release of all our hostages.”
But the rescue operation coincided with a wave of Israeli raids that killed dozens in Rafah, Gaza health authorities said, highlighting the dangers to civilians of a full-scale invasion of the city. Pressure is also mounting from inside Israel, where groups such as the Hostage and Missing Families Forum have appealed to the government to reach a deal for their freedom.
“The eyes of 134 hostages are looking at you,” the group said Tuesday in a statement addressed to the head of the Mossad and the head of the Shin Bet, who are in Cairo for talks. “Don’t give up and don’t come back without a deal.”
United Nations and International Criminal Court officials have warned of catastrophic consequences if Israeli forces invade the city.
Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said an invasion of Rafah would jeopardize the delivery of essential aid through the city’s border crossing with Egypt.
The United Nations, he said, would play no role in Israel’s evacuation plans.
“We will not participate in the forced displacement of people,” Mr. Dujarric said. “As it is, there is no place that is safe right now in Gaza.”
Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, said he was “deeply concerned” by a large-scale ground offensive in Rafah and hinted at the possibility of war crimes prosecutions.
“All wars have rules, and the laws applicable to armed conflicts cannot be interpreted to render them hollow or meaningless,” he said in a statement. posted on social media.
