Biden says hoping Israel will not launch ground invasion of Gaza's Rafah

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) — US President Joe Biden said Friday that he hopes Israel does not mount its planned ground invasion of southern Gaza's Rafah city, where over 1 million displaced Palestinians have sought refuge as negotiations for a cease-fire play out.

Biden said that in "extensive" calls with Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, he "made the case, and I feel very strongly about, that there has to be a temporary cease-fire to get the prisoners out, to get the hostages out. And that is underway."

"I'm still hopeful that that can be done. And in the meantime, I don't anticipate, I'm hoping that the Israelis will not make any massive land invasion in the meantime," the US president said in nationally televised remarks.

"My expectation, that's not going to happen. There has to be a cease-fire temporarily" to facilitate the release of hostages held by Hamas, Biden said. "My hope and expectation is that we'll get this hostage deal, we'll bring the Americans home. The deal is being negotiated now, and we're going to see where it takes us."

A cease-fire between Hamas and Israel had previously been reached for a week from Nov. 24 to Dec. 1, mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the US, during which hostilities were halted, prisoners were swapped, and extremely limited humanitarian aid was delivered to the besieged Gaza Strip.

Israel believes that 134 Israelis are still being held in Gaza after the Israeli army managed on Monday to free two hostages in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. The ensuing Israeli attack has killed at least 28,663 people and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities. Around 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in an interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.