While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is discussing the deal with Hamas in Israel, US officials revealed that the United States believes that reaching a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip as part of a prisoner exchange deal will quell other tensions in the region, including Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea, according to what Reported by Axios.
American officials also added that reaching a deal on Gaza may prevent the outbreak of war between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah, after escalating tensions between the two sides during the past six months.
According to American officials, US President Joe Biden wants to make every effort to avoid Israel carrying out a ground operation in Rafah in southern Gaza and to reach a deal between Israel and Hamas, as he believes that this will lead to postponing the invasion of Rafah, if not Israel abandoning it completely.
In addition, Al-Arabiya/Al-Hadath correspondent said that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken discussed with Benjamin Netanyahu and his security team the files of the deal with Hamas and the operation in Rafah.
An American official also said that Blinken informed Netanyahu that Washington still opposes the ground operation in Rafah.
The evacuation of civilians began in Rafah
Yesterday, Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the process of evacuating civilians from Rafah had begun, in preparation for launching a ground attack on the city.
However, Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), reported at the same time yesterday that the residents of Rafah have not yet been asked to evacuate the city, yet.
While the population evacuation process is expected to extend for about two to three weeks, according to previous Israeli estimates.
Many international organizations and Western countries, led by the United States, a close ally of Israel, expressed their concern for the safety of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians gathered in Rafah.
The United Nations has also repeatedly confirmed that there is no safe place in the entire Strip to shelter the displaced.
It is noteworthy that more than two million Palestinians were displaced to Rafah, as a result of the war that has been ongoing for seven months, where they live in miserable humanitarian conditions.
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