ASHDOD, Israel – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on May 1 that he still had not seen a plan for Israel’s planned offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah that would protect civilians, repeating that Washington could not support such an assault.

Mr Blinken and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Jerusalem for 2½ hours, after which Israel repeated that the Rafah operation would go ahead despite the US position and a UN warning that it would lead to tragedy.

“We cannot, will not, support a major military operation in Rafah absent an effective plan to make sure that civilians are not harmed and, no, we’ve not seen such a plan,” Mr Blinken told reporters.

“There are other ways, and, in our judgment, better ways, of dealing with the... ongoing challenge of Hamas that do not require a major military operation in Rafah,” he said, adding that it was the subject of ongoing talks with Israeli officials.

A government source said on May 2 that Israel’s top ministers were set to meet to discuss prospects of an army sweep of Rafah, as well as a proposed Gaza truce to free some hostages held by Hamas.

An Israeli government spokesperson said Israel remained determined to destroy the remaining Hamas fighting formations.

“When it comes to Rafah – we are committed to remove the last four or five Hamas battalions in Rafah – we are sharing our plans with Secretary of State Blinken,” the spokesperson told a regular briefing.

Israel is the final stop on the top US diplomat’s Middle East tour, his seventh visit to the region that was plunged into conflict in October 2023 when Hamas attacked southern Israel. His trip has largely focused on efforts to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza.

Mr Blinken spoke at Israel’s main port, Ashdod, and praised “meaningful progress” in recent weeks on humanitarian access, with flour for Gaza being allowed to move through the port, as well as at new border crossings that have opened up.

“The progress is real but, given the need, given the immense need in Gaza, it needs to be accelerated, it needs to be sustained,” he said.

Mr Blinken asked Israel’s government to take a set of specific steps to facilitate aid to Gaza, where nearly half the population is suffering catastrophic hunger, he noted.

The US is Israel’s main diplomatic supporter and weapons supplier.

Mr Blinken’s visit comes about a month after US President Joe Biden issued a stark warning that Washington’s policy could shift if Israel fails to take steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering and the safety of aid workers.

Mr Blinken also urged Hamas to accept a truce deal proposed by Egyptian mediators, which would see 33 hostages released in exchange for a larger number of Palestinian prisoners and a halt to the fighting, with the possibility of further steps towards a comprehensive deal later.

“Israel has made very important compromises,” he said. “There’s no time for further haggling. The deal is there. They (Hamas) should take it.”

Israel is holding off sending a delegation to Cairo for follow-up truce talks, pending a response from Hamas’ Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, an Israeli official told Reuters.

Hamas said on May 2 its delegation is set to visit Egypt soon for ceasefire talks. It added that Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh had affirmed the group’s “positive spirit in studying the ceasefire proposal” in a phone call with Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel.

Assault on Rafah

UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said on April 30 that an Israeli ground operation in Rafah was “on the immediate horizon”. In a statement, he said Israeli improvements to aid access in Gaza “cannot be used to prepare for or justify a full-blown military assault on Rafah”.

Mr Netanyahu has insisted that the operation will go ahead, whatever the outcome of the talks, and Israeli media reported on May 1 that he was still refusing to accept Hamas’ central demand that any deal would have to include a permanent ceasefire and a withdrawal of Israeli troops.

The Ynet news site, citing the Prime Minister’s Office, said Mr Netanyahu told Mr Blinken a Rafah operation “was not contingent on anything” and that he rejected any truce proposals that would end the Gaza war.

While facing international calls to hold off on any Rafah offensive, Mr Netanyahu has come under pressure from the religious nationalist partners he depends on for the survival of his coalition government to press ahead.

Israel has described Rafah as the last bastion of Hamas, which it has vowed to eliminate.

En route to a visit to Kerem Shalom, one of the main crossing points for aid into Gaza, Mr Blinken made a brief stop in Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel, where Hamas militants attacked on Oct 7, killing dozens of residents and kidnapping others. Mr Blinken visited the heavily damaged home of an American-Israeli family, all of whom, including five-year old twins, were killed in the assault.

Hamas killed 1,200 people and abducted 253 in the assault, according to Israeli tallies. The hostages are mostly Israeli but include some foreign nationals.

In response, Israel has overrun Gaza, killing more than 34,000 Palestinians, the local health authorities say, in an assault that has reduced much of the enclave to a wasteland.

More than one million people face famine after six months of war, the UN has said. As night fell on May 1, Israeli planes and tanks pounded several areas across Gaza, residents and Hamas media said. Medics in Gaza said at least 27 Palestinians were killed in strikes on May 1, with others likely hurt or killed in areas they were unable to reach. REUTERS