Deadly Strike in Rafah Did Not Cross Biden’s Red Line, Officials Say (2024)

Top U.S. officials say the deadly airstrike in Rafah, while tragic, did not cross Biden’s red line.

Israeli tanks were on the outskirts of the city “to try to put pressure on Hamas,” Mr. Kirby said. He also offered a measure of specificity about Mr. Biden’s warning to Israel, which critics have said was too vague.

“We have not seen them go in with large units and large numbers of troops in columns and formations in some sort of coordinated maneuver against multiple targets on the ground,” Mr. Kirby said. “Everything that we can see tells us that they are not moving in in a major ground operation in population centers in the city of Rafah.”

Mr. Biden has faced pressure from advocates and members of his own party to use his power to curtail arms to Israel as a way to influence its conduct in the war. The United States is by far the biggest supplier of weapons to Israel, which raises questions about American responsibility as the death toll mounts.

The strike in Rafah on Sunday ignited a deadly fire and killed at least 45 people, including children, and wounded 249, according to the Gazan health ministry. It has prompted international outrage, including from leaders in the European Union, the United Nations, Egypt and China.

Vice President Kamala Harris, asked about Rafah on Tuesday, said “the word tragic doesn’t even begin to describe” the deaths. She did not answer a follow-up question about whether the strike crossed a red line for Mr. Biden.

Still, the Israeli military’s conduct was similar to what Mr. Biden said he would not tolerate when he warned, in an interview on CNN earlier this month, that the United States would not supply Israel with weapons to attack Rafah.

“I have made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet they’re not going to get our support if, in fact, they’re going into these population centers,” Mr. Biden said in the interview.

In that interview, Mr. Biden emphasized that the United States would still ensure Israel’s security, citing the Iron Dome missile defense system and his support for Israel’s “ability to respond to attacks.” But he said he would block the delivery of weapons that could be fired into densely populated areas of Rafah.

The area that was hit on Sunday was not included in evacuation orders that Israel issued in early May, and some Palestinians sheltering in the camp said they had believed it was a safe zone.

The Israeli military said that the target of Sunday’s strike was a Hamas compound, and that “precise munitions” had been used to target a commander and another senior official there. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was a “tragic accident” that civilians were killed.

Around one million people have fled Rafah during Israel’s assault on the city, according to the United Nations, including many in the western part of the city and in the area around the camp that was struck on Sunday.

A State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said the United States was watching Israel’s investigation of the incident closely.

“Israel has said that it might have been that there was a Hamas ammo dump near the area where they took the strike,” Mr. Miller said. “It’s a very important factual question that needs to be answered.”

The Israeli military’s spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, told a news conference that Israeli jets had fired the “smallest munitions” that they could use and added that “our munitions alone could not have ignited a fire of this size.”

Israel invaded Gaza after the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7 killed some 1,200 people in Israel. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 36,000 people, many of them women and children, according to health officials in Gaza.

World leaders, including Mr. Biden, have warned of the dangers of a major military operation in Rafah without a proper plan for evacuating the displaced Gazans taking refuge there.

Mr. Miller was able to provide little detail on hundreds of thousands of people who have fled Rafah in recent weeks.

“Some of them have gone back to Khan Younis,” he said. “Some of them have pushed into western Rafah. Some of them have gone to Mawasi. I don’t think there’s any one answer.” Mr. Miller said he did not know if Israel was assisting those people.

Khaled Elgindy, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute and an adviser to Palestinian leaders during past peace negotiations, said the White House was benefiting from its ambiguous descriptions on Mr. Biden’s “red line” for Israel’s military operation in Rafah.

“It’s definitely blurry and by design,” Mr. Elgindy said. “They don’t want to be pinned down. They don’t want to pin themselves down by identifying an exact point or line that gets across because Israel will absolutely cross that line. We’ve seen that over and over again.”

Erica L. Green contributed reporting from Washington, and Michael Crowley from New York.

The Israeli military said it was engaging in ‘close-quarters combat.’

Those statements, however, did little to quell a chorus of voices demanding accountability and a halt to the fighting, which came amid reports of another deadly strike in nearby Al-Mawasi on Tuesday.

Britain’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, on Tuesday cited the “deeply distressing” scenes from Rafah over the weekend — many of which featured charred bodies in the wreckage of the encampment — in calling for a “swift, comprehensive” investigation.

The Israeli military’s spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, told a news conference that an investigation was examining “all possibilities” to determine what had caused the fire

Israeli jets had fired the “smallest munitions” that they could use, he said, insisting that “our munitions alone could not have ignited a fire of this size.” Those claims could not be independently verified.

Even when the cause of the fire is established, Admiral Hagari said, “it won’t make this situation any less tragic.”

Still, he gave no indication that the Israeli military’s operation in Rafah would be interrupted. He did not directly address a question from a reporter about whether tanks had moved into Rafah’s center, saying that Hamas battalions remained in the city and that Israeli forces were operating in a “targeted” way.

In a separate statement, the Israeli military said its troops were operating in the Rafah area, engaging in close-quarters combat, “as efforts are continuing to be made in order to prevent harm to uninvolved civilians in the area.”

China expressed “serious concern” about the Israeli military’s actions in Rafah, citing an order by the International Court of Justice last week that appeared to call for Israel to stop its military offensive there. China “opposes any violation of international law” and “strongly urges Israel to listen to the voice of the international community and stop attacking Rafah,” said Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

But the wording of the court’s order — which called on Israel to immediately halt any actions in Rafah, “which may inflict upon the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that would bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part” — was ambiguous. Israeli officials have argued that the ruling allowed it to continue fighting in Rafah because the military would not inflict such conditions.

Alexandra Stevenson contributed reporting.

U.S.-built pier for delivering aid to Gaza breaks apart in rough seas.

Army engineers are working to put the pier back together and Defense Department officials hope that it “will be fully operational in just a little over a week,” she said.

In early March, President Biden surprised the Pentagon by announcing that the U.S. military would build a pier for Gaza. Defense officials immediately predicted that there would be logistical and security issues.

In the days after the pier became operational on May 17, trucks were looted as they made their way to a warehouse, forcing the U.N. World Food Program to suspend operations. After officials beefed up security, the weather turned bad. American officials had been hoping that the sea surges would not start until later in the summer.

On Saturday, heavy seas forced two small American military vessels that were part of the pier operation to beach in Israel. On Sunday, part of the pier broke off completely, including a wider parking area for dropping off supplies transported by ship, officials said. That part will have to be reconnected.

The pier is now being removed from the coast of Gaza to be repaired after getting damaged in the rough seas, Ms. Singh said. Over the next two days, it will be pulled out and taken to Ashdod, in southern Israel, for repairs.

She said that the fact that the pier, which cost $320 million, was able to get 1,000 metric tons of aid into Gaza before it broke apart demonstrates that it can work.

White House policy does not allow U.S. troops on the ground in Gaza, so the Pentagon was able to start but not finish the mission.

And as the pier project struggles, the situation in Gaza remains dire. Even before Sunday’s deadly Israeli strikes, more than 34,000 people had died and more than 77,000 people had been wounded, according to health officials in the territory.

Gazan officials say a strike killed 21 in Al-Mawasi.

It was not immediately clear what sort of weapons or shells had landed in the camp, or whether they had been fired from the ground or launched from aircraft.

The reports come just two days after dozens of people were killed when a fire tore through a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah after an Israeli airstrike, drawing international condemnation. The Israeli military said that the target of the strike in Rafah on Sunday was a Hamas compound, and that “precise munitions” had been used to target a commander and another senior militant official there.

Israeli troops have been pressing farther into Rafah. The United Nations has said that in the last three weeks a million people have fled the southern city, once a major hub for displaced people forced out of other parts of the enclave by fighting.

Israel has on previous occasions designated parts of Al-Mawasi as a “humanitarian zone,” but the population of the area has grown massively in recent week as hundreds of thousands of people have heeded Israeli warnings to leave the city of Rafah, where Israeli troops have pushed forward in recent weeks. Displaced people have said Al-Mawasi lacks food and basic amenities and the United Nations has warned of dire conditions.

Johnatan Reiss, Arijeta Lajka and Christiaan Triebert contributed reporting.

More Palestinians were leaving Rafah after ‘a bloody and very difficult night.’

“It was a bloody and very difficult night,” said Nedal Kuhail, 30, who was preparing on Tuesday afternoon to leave the apartment in Tal al-Sultan where he had been sheltering with his family since the beginning of the war. “Danger was chasing us from every side.”

Mr. Kuhail said by phone that an Israeli artillery shell struck a lower floor of his building overnight, while another apartment nearby was also hit. He said he saw several people who had been killed or wounded. “This prompted us to make the quick decision to leave Rafah in order to survive,” he said.

Mr. Kuhail estimated that more than 85 percent of the remaining people in his area had fled since Tuesday morning, urged on by the terror they faced overnight. Video footage from the Reuters news agency on Tuesday showed people fleeing parts of Rafah, some on foot and others on carts, as the sounds of blasts and gunfire echoed through the streets.

Around one million people have fled Rafah in the last three weeks amid Israel’s assault on the city in southern Gaza, the United Nations said Tuesday. The evacuation from Rafah, once the primary destination for people leaving other parts of the enclave, is the latest in a string of displacements since Israel launched a war to dismantle Hamas, the armed group that led the deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

Mr. Kuhail said he had found an empty warehouse to rent for his family in the Deir al Balah area of central Gaza. Even though the warehouse is empty and did not have electricity, water or a bathroom, Mr. Kuhail said he was grateful that he at least had a place to go, unlike many of those fleeing.

“We don’t know where we are going,” said Ahmed al-Namleh, who spoke to Reuters as he fled on foot while pushing his belongings on a cart. “We woke up at 6 in the morning from the shelling and rockets.”

Some of the fear was spurred by the strike and ensuing fires on Sunday, which killed 45 people and wounded more than 200, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The Israeli military said that it had used “precise munitions” to kill two senior Hamas leaders. With international condemnation mounting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the civilian deaths were “a tragic accident,” though he gave no sign of curbing the Israeli offensive.

Mr. Kuhail said that he and his family had only decided to flee on Tuesday after artillery shelling signaled that Israeli forces were advancing and that the “danger was getting closer.”

Iyad Abuheweila contributed reporting from Istanbul.

— Hiba Yazbek reporting from Nazareth, Israel

One million people have fled Rafah, and other news.

Three European countries formally recognize Palestinian statehood.

Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, on Tuesday accused Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, of complicity in incitement against Jews for his role in recognizing a Palestinian state.

But Mr. Sánchez rejected that claim in an address on Tuesday ahead of a cabinet vote on the matter, calling the recognition a matter of “historical justice” and a “necessity” in order to achieve peace.

“The recognition of Palestine is not against anyone, least of all Israel, a friendly nation that Spain values and holds in high regard and with whom we aim to foster the strongest possible relationship,” he said on the steps of Moncloa Palace, the prime minister’s residence, in Madrid. “Furthermore, our decision reflects our absolute rejection of Hamas, a terrorist organization that is against a two-state solution.”

Ireland — which on Tuesday flew a Palestinian flag outside its presidential palace, alongside those of the European Union and Ukraine — said that it had agreed to establish full diplomatic relations and would appoint an ambassador to a Palestinian state. “We have made this move alongside Spain and Norway to keep the miracle of peace alive,” said Ireland’s prime minister, Simon Harris. “I again call on Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel to listen to the world and stop the humanitarian catastrophe we are seeing in Gaza.”

While scores of countries have already recognized Palestinian statehood, the closely coordinated moves by the three European nations carried added weight amid the growing toll of the war in Gaza, and because most Western European countries, and the United States, have resisted taking such a step out of solidarity with Israel.

Jonas Gahr Store, the prime minister of Norway, said in an interview last week that his country was taking action along with Spain and Ireland in an effort to salvage the possibility of a two-state solution in the face of an Israeli government that has openly rejected it.

Mr. Store said Norway is hoping to break what he sees as “a downward spiral, with militant groups like Hamas setting the agenda on the Palestinian side” and the Israeli government “establishing hundreds of thousands of settlers” on occupied land.

And even if the reality of two states can seem far away, Mr. Store said, “more countries in Europe are making the same analysis as Norway, that the Palestinians should have the same rights and obligations that statehood entails,” committed to peace and bound by international law.

The moves will likely have little immediate effect on conditions for Palestinians in Gaza, where health authorities say more than 36,000 people have been killed in over seven months of Israeli bombardment and ground combat.

The White House has flatly rejected unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood, with Adrienne Watson, a National Security Council spokeswoman, saying that President Biden “believes a Palestinian state should be realized through direct negotiations between the parties.”

Aaron Boxerman, Steven Erlanger and Emma Bubola contributed reporting.

Israel had not ordered Palestinians to leave the area it struck on Sunday.

Many people had evacuated the area anyway as the Israeli military issued evacuation orders for areas to the east and started its push across Rafah. But others remained, and some Palestinians who were sheltering in the camp said in interviews that they had thought the area was a safe zone.

“Civilian families are sheltering here in the western part of Rafah that is supposed to be a safe zone, according to the army,” said Mohammed Abu Ghanem, 26, who had been sheltering in the camp when Israel struck.

“It was announced it was a safe zone and we were listening,” said Bilal al-Sapti, 30, who had also been sheltering in the camp with his family.

While the camp was not in an area subject to an explicit evacuation order, it was also not part of a “humanitarian zone” along the coast that Israel designated as a safe destination in evacuation orders in early May.

Israeli officials have reiterated that the strike had taken place outside of the designated humanitarian zone.

Around one million people have fled Rafah amid Israel’s assault on the city, according to the United Nations, including many in the western part of the city and in the area around the camp.

The Israeli military has said that the strike in Rafah on Sunday — which ignited a deadly fire in the camp and killed dozens of people — was targeting a Hamas compound. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said it was a “tragic accident” that civilians were killed.

“Despite our efforts to minimize civilian casualties during the strike, the fire that broke out was unexpected and unintended,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, said on Tuesday.

Satellite imagery captured the morning after the strike showed only burn marks remaining where rows of structures had stood.

Abu Bakr Bashir and Iyad Abuheweila contributed reporting.

‘I’ll be strong for you.’ A former hostage awaits her husband’s release.

Nearly eight months into the war, the families of hostages have grown increasingly alarmed. Mr. Siegel, who is 65, has a medical condition, and Israeli soldiers have recently recovered the remains of several hostages in Gaza. For months, Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been trying to get Israel and Hamas to accept a deal for another cease-fire and exchange of captives.

Ms. Siegel understands the hostages’ experience like few others. “Knowing what they’re going through,” she said, “is too much for me to handle.”

She said that she and her husband of over four decades were moved more than a dozen times and were kept in apartments and tunnels, which felt particularly stifling.

Ms. Siegel said that they were denied food and water, while their captors ate, and that she lost over 20 pounds.

She said her captors would hit and push her, blindfold her and pull her by the hair. They shaved Mr. Siegel’s body to humiliate him, she said. The hostages were not allowed to talk.

The captors would play mind games with them, telling them that Israel had ceased to exist, Ms. Siegel said.

Ms. Siegel expressed empathy for Gazans and said she wished Israelis and Palestinians could eventually live alongside each other in peace. She has been alarmed by what she said was a global lack of focus on the hostages.

“Something really bad happened, and we need the world’s help,” she said.

Ms. Siegel often remembers her last conversation with Keith. When the time came for her release from Gaza, she initially refused to leave without him, she said, but soon realized she had to.

“I asked Keith to be strong for me, and I said, ‘I’ll be strong for you’ — and that’s what’s keeping me alive,” she said.

U.N. says it is struggling to keep operating in Gaza because of Israel’s expanding offensive.

The strike and a resulting fire killed at least 45 people, including children, Gazan health ministry officials said. Videos reviewed and verified by The New York Times showed fires raging through the night as people frantically pulled bodies from the rubble, shouting in horror as they carried the charred remains out of the camp. In one video, a man held a headless child as fire engulfed a structure behind him.

The U.N. Security Council held an emergency consultation meeting behind closed doors on Monday afternoon and was scheduled to hold an open emergency meeting on Wednesday morning to discuss the situation in Rafah.

Nicolas de Rivière, France’s ambassador to the U.N., told reporters ahead of Wednesday’s meeting that “there is no safe zone for Palestinian civilians in Rafah.” He called on the Council to adopt a new resolution calling for a cease-fire. “This Israeli operation must stop immediately as requested by the International Court of Justice,” he said, also calling for the immediate release of hostages.

Since the war began last October, the United States has blocked the Council from demanding a cease-fire with three vetoes. In December, Washington abstained from a resolution that called for a humanitarian cease-fire for Ramadan. That resolution passed, but no cease-fire has ever materialized. Negotiations between Israel and Hamas for a cease-fire in exchange for the release of hostages, mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar, have reached an impasse.

Even if the United States allows a cease-fire resolution to pass, it is unclear whether Israel or Hamas would heed it. Israel has shrugged off widespread international condemnation, including from some of its allies, over its conduct in Gaza. Hamas, a terrorist organization, does not abide by international laws of conflict.

António Guterres, the U.N. secretary general, condemned Israel’s attack on Rafah and warned that the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza was worsening. He said in a statement on Tuesday that the only solutions were an immediate end to the conflict and the release of hostages and said “the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is now compounded by the unconscionable prospect of a man-made famine.”

Efforts to alleviate severe hunger were still being crippled by the continued fighting in Rafah, officials said, which was one of the main border crossings for aid convoys coming from Egypt.

Juliette Touma, spokeswoman for UNRWA, the main United Nations agency that aids Palestinians, said on Tuesday that little aid has trickled in — about 200 trucks in a period of three weeks as opposed to more than 500 plus trucks a day that U.N. officials say is needed.

Workers face barriers to distributing the aid that does arrive, she said, among them heavy movement restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities, airstrikes, the expanded military operation in Rafah and recent rocket strikes by Hamas. Not enough fuel is being delivered to Gaza to support humanitarian operations, she added.

“The humanitarian space is shrinking by the hour, by the day, because of all the restrictions placed on us,” said Ms. Touma.

Ms. Touma said that UNRWA staff in Rafah, where the agency has its headquarters and main warehouses, was unable to come to work on Tuesday because of the Israeli airstrikes and because they were packing to move with their families.

Isabel Kershner, Arijeta Lajka and Christiaan Triebert contributed reporting.