The Government of the United States does not believe Israel has launched a full-scale invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, White House spokesman John Kirby disclosed on Wednesday.
He made his remarks just hours after Israeli forces supposedly captured a strategically significant hill with a view of the adjacent Egyptian border and advanced into the city’s centre.
This month, US President Joe Biden threatened to cut off arms sales to Israel if it invaded the Rafah “population centres,” where it is still thought that hundreds of thousands of civilians are seeking refuge.
Mr Kirby was also questioned about an Israeli strike and a resulting fire that killed at least 45 Palestinians – many of them women, children, or elderly – at a camp for displaced people on Sunday.
Africa Today News, New York reports that Israel has said the strike targeted and killed two senior Hamas officials, and that it believes the fire could have been caused by an explosion at a Hamas weapons store nearby.
Speaking to reporters, Mr Kirby described images from the aftermath of the strike as “heartbreaking” and “horrific”.
“There should be no innocent life lost here as a result of this conflict,” he added.
The US state department said it was watching closely for the Israeli military to conduct a quick and thorough investigation into the strike.
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“We don’t support, we won’t support a major ground operation in Rafah,” Mr Kirby said.
“The president said that, should that occur, then it might make him have to make different decisions in terms of support.
“We haven’t seen that happen at this point. We have not seen them smash into Rafah.
“We have not seen them go in with large units, large numbers of troops, in columns and formations in some sort of co-ordinated manoeuvre against multiple targets on the ground.”
Israel has insisted it will not be able to achieve victory in its seven-month war against Hamas in Gaza without taking Rafah and rejected warnings of catastrophic humanitarian consequences.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) first began what it called “targeted” ground operations against Hamas fighters and infrastructure in the east of Rafah on 6 May.
Since then, tanks and troops have gradually pushed into built-up eastern and central areas while also moving northwards along the 13km (8-mile) border with Egypt.
The UN has said around a million people have now fled the fighting in Rafah but that several hundred thousand more could still be sheltering there.