The Biden administration is dismissing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pronouncement that a date has been set for a ground offensive into Rafah as bluster that is in no small part fueled by the Israeli prime minister’s tenuous political standing at home, senior administration officials told CNN.
The administration has been publicly questioning Netanyahu’s insistence Monday that Israel has decided on a time to mount a widescale offensive into the southern Gaza city, with top Biden national security officials saying publicly Tuesday that no date had been shared with them.
Privately, multiple senior administration officials chalked up Netanyahu’s pronouncement – which was followed Tuesday by a declaration that that“no force in the world” will stop Israeli troops from entering Rafah – to bravado.
The prime minister has been struggling to balance his stated goal of eliminating Hamas with the tremendous pressure of reaching a ceasefire that would see Israeli hostages freed. Israeli officials argue that four Hamas battalions remain in Rafah that must be taken out.
Netanyahu may also face a ticking clock – once the war ends Israel is expected to go through a political reckoning and the potential fracturing of Netanyahu’s tenuous far-right governing coalition.
In pushing back against Netanyahu’s Rafah plans, American officials have reiterated that the US has not seen anything resembling a comprehensive plan from the Israelis on how they would carry out such an operation, including first moving the majority of the estimated 1.4 million civilians out of Rafah.
“We do not have a date for any Rafah operation, at least one that’s been communicated to us by the Israelis,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday, adding: “I don’t see…
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