The Axios website reported today, Wednesday, that there are deep divisions between the United States and Israel regarding the planned Israeli invasion of the besieged city of Rafah, which is crowded with more than 1.5 million citizens, most of whom are displaced, and that these divisions were clear in the virtual meeting held Monday between senior officials. From both countries, three sources with direct knowledge of the meeting told the website.

The website quoted sources it described as informed, saying that the meeting, which lasted for about two and a half hours, “a large part of which focused on how to evacuate more than a million Palestinians who were displaced to Rafah,” during which Washington presented an “alternative proposal” to the planned Israeli invasion.

The United States has reiterated its concern about the invasion of Rafah, almost on a daily basis, since the Israeli occupation army began talking about the invasion being imminent, fearing that the forced and unorganized Israeli evacuation of this huge number of displaced people would cause a humanitarian catastrophe.

According to Axios, the Israeli side presented “general ideas regarding civilian evacuations,” and explained that implementation “may take at least 4 weeks and perhaps longer than that, depending on the conditions on the ground.”

The sources also added that American officials made clear during the meeting that this estimate was “unrealistic,” and informed the Israelis that they were “underestimating the size and difficulty of the mission,” according to Axios.

The report says that American officials assured the Israelis that the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Gaza “leaves no room for confidence in Israel’s ability to carry out an organized and effective evacuation of civilians.”

Two sources for the site also indicated that one of the American officials at the meeting said that a planned and adequately studied evacuation process “may take about 4 months,” an estimate that the Israelis rejected.

It is noteworthy that the White House said in a statement following the end of the meeting on Monday that it expressed to the Israeli delegation its concerns about the attack that its army intends to launch on the city of Rafah, explaining that Israel agreed to “take these concerns into account.”

The aforementioned statement said that the American delegation, which included Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, said, “The American side expressed its concern about several action plans in Rafah,” noting that “the Israeli side agreed to take these concerns into account and hold follow-up discussions.” .

According to Axios, Sullivan warned Israelis of the possibility of declaring a famine in Gaza in the coming weeks, according to the United Nations scale, called the Integrated Interim Classification of Food Security.

He pointed out that an announcement like this would be only the third of its kind in the twenty-first century. "This would be bad for Israel and the United States," Axios quoted Sullivan as saying.

During the meeting, the United States presented ideas about an alternative approach to Israel’s military operation in Rafah, which includes “isolating Rafah from the rest of the Gaza Strip, securing the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, focusing on targeting senior Hamas leaders in the city, and carrying out air strikes based on intelligence information,” according to the report.

Israel has been confirming that it will invade Rafah, under the pretext of the presence of five battalions of Palestinian resistance fighters still present in Rafah.

It is noteworthy that the United Nations said last month that “famine is imminent” in the Gaza Strip, likely to strike northern Gaza next May, and may spread throughout the entire strip, which is inhabited by 2.3 million people, by July.

In a related issue, a new report issued by the World Bank and the United Nations on Tuesday stated that the cost of damage to vital infrastructure in Gaza is estimated at about $18.5 billion, equivalent to 97 percent of the gross domestic product of the West Bank and Gaza Strip combined in 2022.

The report stated that with 84 percent of hospitals and health facilities damaged or destroyed, and a lack of electricity and water to operate the remainder, residents have only minimal access to health care, medicines, or life-saving treatments.