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Israeli PM Netanyahu orders evacuation plan for southern Gaza city of Rafah
Fox News foreign correspondent Benjamin Hall has the latest on the Israel-Hamas war on "Special Report."
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JERUSALEM — The Biden administration is reportedly taking its goal of a temporary cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war to the U.N. Security Council as early as Tuesday.
The administration is said to have proposed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution which in part would call for a temporary cease-fire and call on Israel not to go into Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
According to Reuters, the U.S. text states in part that it “determines that under current circumstances a major ground offensive into Rafah would result in further harm to civilians and their further displacement including potentially into neighboring countries.”
Richard Goldberg, a former NSC official during the Trump administration, told Fox News Digital, “The United States should be vetoing pro-Hamas resolutions, not proposing them. By putting forward a resolution calling for a ceasefire and opposing Israeli military action in Rafah, the White House is effectively pushing for Hamas to survive to massacre another day. This is a complete betrayal of U.S. interests and values.”
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President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (AP | Getty Images)
The Jewish state has hitherto opposed President Biden’s attempts to torpedo its slated seizure of Rafah where one of the last bastions of Hamas terrorists and hostages, including Americans, are believed to be located.
On Friday, President Biden made clear his feelings about Israel going into Rafah, telling reporters, “I’m hoping that the Israelis will not make a massive land invasion.”
Biden added during the same press conference that he had engaged with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the situation and that he had made the case in calling for a temporary cease-fire so that hostage negotiations can continue.
Representatives of member countries vote during the Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters on Friday, Dec. 22, in New York City. (AP/Yuki Iwamura)
“The world must know and Hamas leaders must know if our hostages are not home by Ramadan, the fighting will continue and expand to Rafah,” said Benny Gantz, an Israeli security cabinet member and leader of the opposition party. Ramadan starts on March 11.
On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the decision was one Israel would take on its own: “Hamas is left with marginal [forces] in the central camps and with the Rafah Brigade, and what stands between them and a complete collapse as a military system is a decision by the IDF.”
Commentators have noted that the hostage release talks in Cairo are stagnate and Israeli forces have managed to free two hostages via limited incursions into Rafah last week.
Gallant fired back at the international voices opposed to an invasion into Rafah: “There is no one here to come to their aid, no Iranians, no international aid.”
He continued, “There were 24 regional battalions in Gaza – we have dismantled 18 of them,” Gallant said during a media briefing last week. “Now, Rafah is the next Hamas center of gravity.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, confers with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during their meeting with President Biden in Tel Aviv on Oct. 18, 2023. (Miriam Alster/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
A U.S. State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “We have also been clear that a full-scale Israel military operation in Rafah should not proceed until there is a credible and executable plan for ensuring the safety of and support for the more than 1 million people sheltering there.”
According to the State Department spokesperson, “The best way to achieve an enduring end to the crisis in Gaza that provides lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike, is our strong commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state. As such, the United States continues to support the two-state solution and to oppose policies that endanger its viability or contradict our mutual interests and values.”
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A picture taken from Rafah shows smoke billowing over Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip during Israeli bombardment on Jan. 22, 2024. (AFP via Getty Images)
Yigal Carmon, who was a colonel in Israel’s military intelligence service, told Fox News Digital, “The Rafah crossing was the major area through which the worst smuggling operation went on for years when it was in the hands of the Egyptian government. If this is not stopped, there will be no end to the war and no end to war, particularly heavy missiles on Tel Aviv and its surroundings. The seizure of Rafah will limit the war significantly.”
Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken shake hands prior to a meeting at the Muqata, the presidential compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah. ((Photo by SAUL LOEB / POOL / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/POOL/AFP via Getty Images))
He added, “If the U.S. administration has a miraculous way to convince Egypt to fulfill its commitment, then there would be no need for an operation. Unfortunately, the United States does not pressure Egypt even though it has all the capabilities to do that. But what remains is to pressure Israel, but this will not work because what is at stake is missiles on Tel Aviv, and Netanyahu cannot afford to end the war with [a] continued flow of missiles on Tel Aviv.”
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Israel Defense Forces troops cross the Gaza war zone. (IDF Spokesman’s Unit)
Carmon, the founder and president of the Middle East Media Research Institute, on Aug. 31 predicted an Iran-backed Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, which became reality on Oct. 7.
When asked why Biden is imposing pressure on Israel, Goldberg, a senior advisor at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies said, “There are lines being pushed that it’s all about Dearborn, or that it’s all about securing Saudi-Israel peace, but the polling out of Michigan and the strategic priorities in Riyadh don’t back up these arguments. It looks more like left-wing ideologues using the pretext of political necessity and the potential of a Saudi-Israel normalization deal to jam through all the bad ideas that never made it into policy for years.”
Fox News Digital reported that Biden is putting Israel in a vice in order to win over the large American-Muslim vote in Dearborn, Michigan, which is a critical swing state in his 2024 reelection campaign.
Pro-Palestinian protesters are shown in New York City on Nov. 8, 2023. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)
On Sunday, Netanyahu told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, “The release of hostages can be achieved through strong military action and tough negotiations, very tough negotiations. That tough position has to involve the exertion of pressure. And the exertion of pressure is not merely on Hamas itself but on those who can exert pressure on Hamas, beginning with Qatar.”
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Netanyahu added, “Qatar can press Hamas as no one else can. They host Hamas leaders. Hamas is dependent on them financially. I urge you to press Qatar to press Hamas because we want our hostages released. I hope that we can achieve a deal soon, to release more of our hostages. But deal or no deal, we have to finish the job to get total victory.”
The U.S. Mission to the U.N didn’t immediately respond to Fox News Digital for comment.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Benjamin Weinthal reports on Israel, Iran, Syria, Turkey and Europe. You can follow Benjamin on Twitter @BenWeinthal.