Vice President Kamala Harris declined to rule out \u2018consequences\u2019 for Israel if it moves forward with an invasion of Rafah in Gaza on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Harris made the statement in an interview with ABC News, saying such a move by Netanyahu\u2019s government would be a \u2018huge mistake.\u2019 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said an invasion is imminent, arguing it is necessary to fully root out Hamas.<\/p>\n
\u2018Netanyahu appears to be just flat out ignoring President Biden\u2019s warning about an offensive in Rafah. Is that a red line for your administration?\u2019 ABC\u2019s Rachel Scott asked.<\/p>\n
\u2018We have been clear in multiple conversations and in every way that any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake,\u2019 Harris told the outlet when asked about potential consequences. \u2018Let me tell you something: I have studied the maps. There\u2019s nowhere for those folks to go.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018A mistake, but would there be consequences if [Netanyahu] does move forward?\u2019 Scott pressed.<\/p>\n
\u2018We\u2019re going to take it one step at a time, but we\u2019ve been very clear in terms of our perspective on whether or not [an invasion] should happen,\u2019 Harris responded.<\/p>\n
\u2018Are you ruling out that there would be consequences from the United States?\u2019 Scott pressed again.<\/p>\n
\u2018I am ruling out nothing,\u2019 Harris said.<\/p>\n
The exchange comes days after Netanyahu vowed Israel would move forward with an invasion with or without U.S. support on Friday.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu nevertheless agreed to send a high-level delegation to meet with White House officials this week to determine whether a compromise can be made.<\/p>\n
Israel says Rafah is the last remaining stronghold of Hamas and the terrorist group\u2019s forces there must be defeated for Israel to meet its war objectives. Israel vowed to destroy Hamas following the group\u2019s Oct. 7 attack, which killed some 1,200 people, took 250 others hostage and triggered the fierce Israeli air and ground offensive in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Rafah now serves as shelter to roughly 1 million Palestinians displaced by the Gaza war, however. The Biden administration has insisted that any plan for an invasion must include clear and robust protections for civilians, and they have yet to be satisfied with Israel\u2019s precautions.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu said he told Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel is working on ways to evacuate civilians from combat zones and to address the humanitarian needs of Gaza. Nevertheless, he said an invasion of Rafah is imminent.<\/p>\n
\u2018I also said that we have no way to defeat Hamas without entering Rafah,\u2019 Netanyahu said. \u2018I told him that I hoped we would do this with U.S. support, but, if necessary, we will do it alone.\u2019<\/p>\n
The Associated Press contributed to this report<\/p>\n\n
Vice President Kamala Harris declined to rule out \u2018consequences\u2019 for Israel if it moves forward with an invasion of Rafah in Gaza on Sunday. Harris made the statement in an interview with ABC News, saying such a move by Netanyahu\u2019s government would be a \u2018huge mistake.\u2019 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said an invasion <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":17227,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}