Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported, citing American officials, that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken believes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking confrontation with the United States over the Palestinian issue, while US intelligence sources confirmed that Israel has been able to weaken the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). But it didn't kill it.

The newspaper said that the US Secretary of State was shocked by the Israeli Prime Minister's involvement in the hostage issue, noting that Blinken is more committed to recovering Israeli detainees in the Gaza Strip than Netanyahu.

Blinken met with Netanyahu and officials in the Israeli war government during a visit he made to Tel Aviv yesterday, Thursday, to discuss ways to secure the release of detainees in Gaza the day after Netanyahu’s statements rejecting some of Hamas’ demands.

Blinken said at the beginning of a meeting with Israeli war cabinet ministers that the talks will focus on “the hostages and the strong desire of each of us to see them returned to their families, and on the work that is being done to achieve this goal.”

Yesterday, Thursday, Netanyahu rejected Hamas's demands for a ceasefire as part of a truce agreement, and pledged to expand military operations to include Rafah (south), where more than a million Palestinians were displaced.

The position on the aggression against Rafah

The White House announced - yesterday, Thursday - that the US administration will not support any Israeli plans to carry out major military operations in Rafah, and that negotiations are continuing regarding the release of detainees and reaching a truce agreement in Gaza.

Kirby stressed that "any major military operation in Rafah at this time - and under these circumstances, and with the presence of more than a million and perhaps more than 1.5 million Palestinians seeking asylum and seeking shelter in Rafah without due regard for their safety - would be a disaster and we will not support it."

He said that Blinken made clear the United States' concerns about such operations.

US President Joe Biden described the Israeli response in the Gaza Strip as exceeding the limit, in unprecedented statements criticizing the Israeli war on the Strip, and stressed that his administration is working to reach a permanent cessation of fighting.

Biden said in a surprise speech at the White House on Wednesday evening that he had put strong pressure on Netanyahu to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, where “there are many innocent people, women and children, who are starving and in dire need of it,” as he put it.

Estimates

Despite Netanyahu’s insistence on continuing the war until the elimination of Hamas, it does not seem that the Israeli aggression that has been ongoing for 4 months on the Gaza Strip will enable him to achieve the goal that he announced since the outbreak of the first spark of the war. The American newspaper “The New York Times” quoted American officials as saying that intelligence officials The Americans confirmed that Israel weakened Hamas, but did not come close to eliminating it.

The newspaper said that officials refrained from providing specific estimates regarding the number of “Hamas militants killed,” under the pretext that these estimates are inaccurate and meaningless, as they put it.

It also quoted American officials as saying that the United States has learned through wars that counting the deaths of members of rebel movements or during counter-terrorism operations is stupid, and that there are doubts that the goal of destroying Hamas is realistic, and that weakening the movement’s fighting power may be a more achievable goal.

Source: Al Jazeera + websites