US is ‘helping Israel target Hamas leaders’ in hopes of limiting invasion of Rafah

The Biden administration is sharing intelligence with Israel to help it target Hamas leadership and conduct other combat operations in the hope of limiting the invasion of Rafah, according toThe Washington Post.

For weeks, Israeli officials have warned of imminent invasion in the southern city Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians fled to escape fighting in the north of Gaza.

On Sunday, the exodus of Palestinians from Gaza’s last refuge accelerated as Israeli forces pushed deeper into Rafah. Israel also pounded the territory’s devastated north, where some Hamas militants have regrouped in areas the military said it had cleared months ago.

Rafah is considered Hamas’ last stronghold. Some 300,000 of the more than 1 million civilians sheltering there have fled the city following evacuation orders from Israel, which says it must invade to dismantle Hamas and return scores of hostages taken from Israel in the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war.

The White House, State Department, and a numberof Democrats arevocally opposed to those plans, stating that the US does not believe an assault can be carried out with appropriate considerations for civilians caught in the crossfire. President Joe Biden told CNN last week that he would cut off specific types of military aid to Israel if a full-scale attack was launched in Rafah.

“We’re going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks that came out of the Middle East recently,” he said. “But it’s, it’s just wrong. We’re not going to – we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells.”

On Sunday, the Washington Post reported new details of the Biden administration’s steps to limit the Rafah attacks. The US