MIDDLE EAST

Photo Credict AP.

Israel is determined to launch a ground offensive against Hamas in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost town, a plan that has raised global alarm because of the potential for harm to the hundreds of thousands of civilians sheltering there.

Photo credit: Jacquelyn Martin

Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s former White House adviser and his son-in-law, praised the “very valuable” potential of Gaza’s “waterfront property,” suggesting that Israel should remove civilians while it “cleans up” the area.

“Gaza’s waterfront property, it could be very valuable, if people would focus on building up livelihoods,” Kushner said in an interview dated Feb. 15, posted earlier this month on the YouTube channel of the Middle East Initiative, a program of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and reported first on Tuesday by The Guardian. “If you think about all the money that’s gone into this tunnel network and into all the munitions, if that would have gone into education or innovation, what could have been done?”

Photo credit: Getty Images

Israel's expected military invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza was the focus of President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's call on Monday -- their first in more than a month -- with the White House saying Biden still has "deep concerns" Israel will not do enough to prevent civilian casualties as it goes after Hamas fighters in the city.

In the latest development in a standoff between Biden and Netanyahu that's gone on for weeks -- with the U.S. demanding a satisfactory "plan" from Israel -- national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Netanyahu, at Biden's request, would be sending a delegation to Washington to try to work out what he called "an alternative approach."

Photo credit: Said Khatib

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will not leave civilians trapped in Rafah when its forces begin a long-feared assault on the southern Gaza city where more than a million Palestinians have taken shelter.

“Our goal in eliminating the remaining terrorist battalions in Rafah goes hand in hand with enabling the civilian population to leave Rafah. It’s not something we will do while keeping the population locked in place. In fact, we’ll do the very opposite, we will enable them to leave,” Netanyahu said during a press statement in Jerusalem with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Photo credit: Leo Correa

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu railed Sunday against growing criticism from top ally the United States against his leadership amid the devastating war with Hamas, describing calls for a new election as “wholly inappropriate.”

In recent days, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in the country and a strong Israel supporter, called on Israel to hold a new election, saying Netanyahu had “lost his way.” President Joe Biden expressed support for Schumer’s “good speech,” and earlier accused Netanyahu of hurting Israel because of the huge civilian death toll in Gaza.