The United States is said to have offered Israel “sensitive intelligence” on the whereabouts of senior Hamas leaders if it agrees to hold off on a long-promised military assault in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah.
Washington “is offering Israel valuable help if it holds back, including sensitive intelligence to help the Israeli military pinpoint the location of Hamas leaders and find the group’s hidden tunnels,” The Washington Post reported, quoting four unnamed sources. It has also offered to help put up large tent encampments for Palestinians evacuated from Rafah and to help in building infrastructure to provide humanitarian aid.
This report came after The Times of Israel on Friday reported that Sinwar is not hiding in Rafah, citing recent intelligence assessments that placed the Hamas leader in underground tunnels in the Khan Younis area. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to launch a major offensive in Rafah for months, arguing that the operation is essential for defeating Hamas, which has four of its remaining six active battalions located in the city.
On Friday, the White House said that the US does not believe the campaign amounts to a wide-scale military operation in the population centers the crowded city of the sort that Washington warned would lead him to halt weapons shipments to Israel. Last week, US President Joe Biden already withheld a shipment of high payload bombs amid fears they’d be used in Rafah.
READ MORE: Israeli Cabinet ‘Approves Expansion’ Of Rafah Operation, Risking Clash With US And Further UN Outcry
Israel’s security cabinet voted on Thursday to approve a measured expansion of the Rafah operation in what is aimed to remain within the scope of what Washington is willing to accept. The war in Gaza erupted with Hamas’s October 7 massacre, when Hamas members burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 252 hostages. Promising to eliminate Hamas, Israel launched a wide-scale military campaign in Gaza. Health authorities in Gaza say almost 35,000 people have been killed in the ensuing war. The IDF says it has killed over 13,000 operatives in Gaza.
(With agency inputs)
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