US President Joe Biden has no plans to change his Israel policy following a deadly weekend strike on Gaza’s Rafah — but is not turning a “blind eye” to the plight of Palestinian civilians, the White House said Tuesday.
Gazan health authorities said 45 people were killed as a blaze tore through a camp for displaced people following the Sunday strike by Israel.
But Washington does not believe that Israel’s actions in Rafah amount to a full-scale operation that would breach Biden’s “red lines,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
“As a result of this strike on Sunday I have no policy changes to speak to,” Kirby told a White House briefing. “It just happened, the Israelis are going to investigate it.”
Kirby added however that “this is not something that we’ve turned a blind eye to” when asked “how many charred corpses” it would take for Biden to change course on the issue.
Biden has previously said he would not support a major Israeli military offensive in Rafah, from which one million civilians have fled, and earlier this month paused a shipment of heavy bombs to Israel over concerns they could be used against the southern Gazan city.
But under repeated questioning, Kirby insisted that the president was not “moving the stick” on how to define a major military offensive against Rafah.
“We have not seen them smash into Rafah,” he added.
“We have not seen them go in with large units, large numbers of troops, in columns and formations in some sort of coordinated maneuver against multiple targets on the ground.”
