--- title: The U.S.-Israel Spat Over Rafah Is a Distraction description: Netanyahu's routine threat to invade the southern city is drawing attention away from the catastrophe all around Gaza. canonical: https://time.com/6963264/netanyahu-rafah-israel/ author: Mairav Zonszein article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-04-04T14:00:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T17:24:33.994Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The U.S.-Israel Spat Over Rafah Is a Distraction og:description: Netanyahu's routine threat to invade the southern city is drawing attention away from the catastrophe all around Gaza. og:url: https://time.com/6963264/netanyahu-rafah-israel/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt843b021edd22b0c3/698a555adb2987b54b26b856/netanyahu-rafah-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: netanyahu-rafah-1 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The U.S.-Israel Spat Over Rafah Is a Distraction twitter:description: Netanyahu's routine threat to invade the southern city is drawing attention away from the catastrophe all around Gaza. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt843b021edd22b0c3/698a555adb2987b54b26b856/netanyahu-rafah-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- # The U.S.-Israel Spat Over Rafah Is a Distraction > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Biden Tells Netanyahu Future U.S. Support for War Requires Changes to Israeli Policy [Watch (HLS stream): Biden Tells Netanyahu Future U.S. Support for War Requires Changes to Israeli Policy](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bXp6g1mb.m3u8) (3:51)  _Published 2024-04-04. Biden and Netanyahu spoke by phone days after Israeli airstrikes killed seven food aid workers in Gaza and added a new layer of complication in the leaders’ increasingly strained relationship._ Apr 4, 2024 2:00 PM UTC by [Mairav Zonszein](https://time.com/author/mairav-zonszein/) ## Mairav Zonszein Apr 4, 2024 2:00 PM UTC For a few months now, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly invoked the name of the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city: [Rafah](https://time.com/6836301/gaza-rafah-essay/). His government has relentlessly threatened Hamas—and promised its own public—that it will soon [send ground troops](https://time.com/6957350/rafah-gaza-netanyahu-biden-israel-offensive/) into the only part of Gaza that Israel has yet to invade. Netanyahu [dangles the threat](https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/27/middleeast/israel-rafah-offensive-netanyahu-intl/index.html) in almost every meeting and press conference, without mentioning that the manpower and logistics required to both recruit the required IDF troops and evacuate the civilian population would take weeks to organize. That process has yet to begin. But another battle is well under way. The U.S. has [pushed back](https://time.com/6761623/why-rafah-is-a-turning-point-in-the-gaza-war/) firmly at the Rafah plan, even as it continues to support Israel’s war effort. With well over 1 million [internally displaced Palestinians](https://time.com/6343516/southern-gaza-fleeing-safety-essay/) sheltering in Rafah, a ground operation is certain to exacerbate the unfolding humanitarian disaster in Gaza. The threat of mass casualties, and of desperate Palestinians trying to flee [into Egypt](https://time.com/6330904/palestinians-gaza-fear-permanent-expulsion/), looms large. Both Egypt and the U.S. have signaled their strong opposition to such a scenario, which could further destabilize the region. The U.S. has been insisting that Israel find alternatives, keep such an operation limited, and take steps to protect the civilian population. In a virtual meeting this week, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken [cast serious doubt](https://www.axios.com/2024/04/03/israel-us-rafah-meeting-divisions) on Israel’s ability to evacuate and protect Palestinians in Rafah. **Read More:** [_Gaza and the End of Western Fantasy_](https://time.com/6553708/gaza-end-of-western-hypocrisy-essay/) Israel makes a military argument, calling a Rafah operation necessary to defeat Hamas’s four remaining battalions, and other combatants who have fled there; destroy Hamas’s military infrastructure; and assume control of the border between Egypt and Gaza to prevent weapons smuggling. Netanyahu expressly [told](https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4549655-israel-gaza-netanyahu-enter-rafah-with-or-without-us/) Blinken last month that Israel will go into Rafah with or without U.S. approval. While we don’t know what is in Netanyahu’s head, we do know that Israel cannot wage this war [without U.S. backing](https://time.com/6963032/israel-netanyahu-allies-global-standing/). And, again, that a Rafah operation can’t happen anytime soon for logistical reasons. Netanyahu’s threats of an impending ground operation are thus just that, a threat—though one that could serve several purposes. First, by pressuring Hamas, it increases Israel’s leverage in negotiations toward a [hostage deal](https://time.com/6836786/do-the-deal/) (though this does not appear to have worked). The threat is also a way for Netanyahu to pander to his base, asserting that Israel will operate in Gaza however it wishes, even in the face of admonitions from Washington. It could also be a ploy by Netanyahu to argue, further down the road, that the reason Israel wasn’t able to defeat Hamas entirely was U.S. opposition to a major ground invasion in Rafah. Spotlighting Rafah also serves one more purpose. Intentionally or not, keeping international attention fixed on southern Gaza draws attention away from the catastrophic situation unfolding in northern Gaza, where Palestinians [face mass starvation](https://time.com/6957987/famine-gaza-ipc-report/), and where breakdowns in order display the failings (or features) of Israel’s war strategy. Israeli leaders insist that they cannot win the war without defeating what remains of Hamas in Rafah. But doing so will still leave many thousands of Hamas fighters intact, and the aftermath could look a lot like what is already happening in northern Gaza, just worse. That’s because the main challenge Israel faces is not just taking apart Hamas’s military capacities but also (and primarily) its governance—and figuring out what to replace it with. The million-dollar question Israeli leaders have been unable to answer: Who will govern Gaza? Israel has said it will not occupy Gaza after the war, that Hamas cannot remain, and that the current [Palestinian Authority](https://time.com/6835263/palestinian-prime-minister-mohammad-shtayyeh-mustafa/), based in the West Bank, cannot take over either. The physical reality is that Israel has cut the strip in half, dividing north from south. It has occupied and largely depopulated the north, and created a [buffer zone](https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2024-03-28/ty-article-magazine/.premium/buffer-zone-and-control-corridor-what-israeli-armys-entrenchment-in-gaza-looks-like/0000018e-8556-df92-a5ff-e77e0d6a0000) along the border with Israel on 16% of Gaza’s territory. Israeli forces have had control of northern Gaza for months, yet must conduct repeated operations to prevent Hamas from reasserting itself. Israel must thwart ambushes and attacks on its troops that the IDF has said it expects to continue in the form of guerrilla warfare throughout the Strip for years to come. Yet it also, and mainly, must remove Hamas as an administrative entity that imposes and preserves public order and oversees the distribution of humanitarian aid. This appears far from achievable at this point, six months in. **Read More:** [_How Netanyahu Undermined Israel’s Security_](https://time.com/6322410/how-netanyahu-undermined-israel-security/) Then Israel has to find something to take its place. The breakdown of Hamas’s governing authority, along with Israel’s efforts to [remove UNRWA](https://time.com/6959630/palestinians-unrwa-congressional-spending-bill-gaza-aid/), the U.N. agency mandated to serve Palestinian refugees, has created a security and logistics vacuum for which Israel—along with the U.S., Arab states, and other interested parties—has yet to locate or build a replacement. If that wasn’t bad enough, the Israeli strike on the [World Central Kitchen convoy](https://time.com/6963079/world-central-kitchen-relief-workers-gaza-israel/) that killed seven aid workers has led the WCF—one of the groups Israel was looking to fill the vacuum—to pause their services. Amid this void, the north is stalked by [mass starvation](https://time.com/6552740/gaza-israel-starvation-hunger/). A recent Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report stated that a third of Gazans face acute food insecurity. In northern Gaza, that number reaches 55%. The Biden Administration is now scrambling to provide a response to the challenges to humanitarian aid delivery. Those efforts would be severely hampered by an Israeli ground operation in Rafah—the threat of which must not be allowed to distract from the more urgent emergency: Staving off the famine that has begun to grip the north, in part because of Israel’s inability to answer the question of who, if not Hamas, will rule the Strip. ## Transcript President had a chance to speak with prime minister Netanyahu earlier today on that phone call the president emphasized that the strikes on humanitarian workers and the overall humanitarian situation in Gaza are unacceptable. Make clear the need for Israel to announce and to implement a series of specific concrete and measurable steps to address civilian harm humanitarian suffering and the safety of a work he made clear that US policy with respect to God that will be determined by our assessment of Israel's immediate action on these steps. The underscore that an immediate cease-fire is essential to stabilize and improve the humanitarian situation and to protect innocent civilians and he urged the prime minister to empower his negotiators to conclude a deal without delay to bring the hostages home. The two leaders also discussed public Irani and threats against Israel and the Israeli people President Biden made clear that the United States strongly supports Israel in the face of those threats. What would be cut off from Israel for using this war if that if he doesn't change horses A potential policy decisions coming forward what we want to see her some real changes on the Israeli side. And you know, if we don't see changes on their side still have to be changes from our side, but I won't preview with that cuz look like now they talk about concrete steps what we are looking to see in and hope to see you here in coming hours and days is a dramatic increase in the humanitarian assistance getting in additional Crossings opened up and a reduction in the violence against civilians and certainly Aid workers. We want we want to see that that even as the Israelis work through their investigation that they are willing and able to take practical immediate steps to protect a workers on the ground and to demonstrate that they that they have that Civilian heart medication in place. So I guess those are broad brushes all that the Israeli speak to what they will or won't do here. But again in coming hours and days we will be looking for concrete tangible steps if they're taking I think what the world wants to understand is is the White House warning that it may remove military aid. What exactly is the threat here? I think the verb stated it pretty clearly and I'm not going to I'm not going to as I said earlier, I'm not going to preview steps am not going to preview decisions that haven't been made yet. But there are things that need to be done. There are too many civilians being killed. The list two Aid workers is unacceptable. And now we have certain Aid organizations that are reconsidering whether they're even going to be able to continue operations and Gaza long Fannin lose. So there has to be tangible steps. Let's see what they announce. Let's see what they direct. Let's see what they do, but I'm not going to get ahead of that. Make these concrete changes or else it's the or else that I want to make clear is the president threatening to withhold Aid to Israel. If they do not make me change the president made it clear that our policies with respect to God. I will be depended upon our assessment of how well these Raley's make changes and Implement changes to make the situation better for the Palestinian people and how much time are you giving them to make these changes to implement these concrete? We we would hope to see some announcements of changes here and coming hours and days and I'll leave it at that. hours and days ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6963264/netanyahu-rafah-israel/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6963264/netanyahu-rafah-israel/"},"headline":"The U.S.-Israel Spat Over Rafah Is a Distraction","datePublished":"2024-04-04T14:00:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T17:24:33.994Z","description":"Netanyahu's routine threat to invade the southern city is drawing attention away from the catastrophe all around Gaza.","url":"https://time.com/6963264/netanyahu-rafah-israel/","keywords":["Israel-Hamas War","freelance"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mairav Zonszein","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/mairav-zonszein/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/israel-hamas-war/","name":"Israel-Hamas War"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6963264/netanyahu-rafah-israel/","name":"The U.S.-Israel Spat Over Rafah Is a Distraction"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Biden Tells Netanyahu Future U.S. Support for War Requires Changes to Israeli Policy","description":"Biden and Netanyahu spoke by phone days after Israeli airstrikes killed seven food aid workers in Gaza and added a new layer of complication in the leaders’ increasingly strained relationship.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/bXp6g1mb/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2024-04-04T20:14:41.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bXp6g1mb.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6963264/netanyahu-rafah-israel/","duration":"PT3M51S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6963264/netanyahu-rafah-israel/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```