Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the top US diplomat Antony Blinken on Friday that Israel is prepared to continue its war against Hamas alone, amid tense relations between the two allies over the six-month-old Gaza conflict.
Blinken met one-on-one with Netanyahu in talks aimed at ensuring more food flows into Gaza, the top US diplomat’s sixth diplomatic swing through the Middle East since the war began on October 7.
Netanyahu said he told Blinken he appreciated US support in its fight against Hamas and that Israel recognises it needs to protect civilians. However, he reiterated plans to push into Rafah, against the territory’s southern border fence, where more than a million Gazans have taken refuge in makeshift shelters.
“I also said that we have no way to defeat Hamas without going into Rafah and eliminating the rest of the battalions there. And I told him that I hope we will do it with the support of the U.S., but if we have to – we will do it alone,” he said in a video statement to reporters.
Israel says Rafah is the last bastion for Hamas militants, and that it has a plan to evacuate civilians before an attack. Washington says a ground assault would be a “mistake” and cause too much harm to those displaced there.
In Gaza, Israel claimed on Friday to have killed or captured hundreds of Hamas fighters in a five-day operation at the Al Shifa hospital complex, one of the only medical facilities even partially functioning in the north. Hamas and medical staff deny fighters were present there.
A strain in ties between the United States and Israel has increasingly become public, with US President Joe Biden calling Israel’s campaign in Gaza “over the top” and saying it has had too great a toll on civilian lives.
The war was triggered by a raid into southern Israel by Hamas fighters who killed 1,200 and took 253 hostages, by Israeli tallies. More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in the subsequent Israeli bombardments, with many more feared dead under the rubble, Gaza health authorities say.
Prior to the meeting, Blinken had said he would push Netanyahu to take urgent steps to allow more aid into the densely-populated enclave, where mass death from famine is imminent, according to the United Nations.
US officials say the number of aid deliveries via land needs to increase fast and that aid needs to be sustained over a long period.
“A hundred percent of the population of Gaza is experiencing severe levels of acute food insecurity. We cannot, we must not allow that to continue,” Blinken told a news conference late on Thursday.
A report this week by the hunger monitor relied on by the United Nations found all Gazans were experiencing severe food shortages, for half the population at the the worst of five levels or “catastrophe”, and that famine accompanied by mass death was imminent without urgent changes.
Israel, which inspects all shipments to Gaza and has sealed off the fence on the north of the enclave, denies restricting food and says it believes enough is getting through.
“As much as we know, by our analysis, there is no starvation in Gaza. There is a sufficient amount of food entering Gaza every day,” Colonel Moshe Tetro, head of Israel’s Coordination and Liasion Administration for Gaza, told reporters.