Netanyahu's Rafah attack vow snarls truce deal

What happened

Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Tuesday after visits to Jordan and Saudi Arabia to help nail down a promising deal for a truce in Gaza. The plan would return Israelis hostages and avert an Israeli attack on Rafah, refuge to 1.5 million Palestinian civilians displaced by the war. Hours before Blinken's arrival, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will invade Rafah regardless.

Who said what

"We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate Hamas' battalions there — with or without a deal, to achieve the total victory," Netanyahu said. "All I can say is we don't want to see a major ground operation in Rafah," White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said.

The commentary

Netanyahu's threat to invade Rafah "might be a tactic intended to pressure Hamas or to appease hard-liners" in his Cabinet who are threatening to topple his government if he makes a hostage deal, but they certainly "injected new uncertainty into whether there would be a truce," The New York Times said.

What next?

Despite international appeals to "spare Rafah," a "ground operation there is on the immediate horizon," said United Nations humanitarian affairs undersecretary Martin Griffiths.