Israel rejects U.S. plea to halt Rafah attack, agrees to talk in Washington

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday rejected the U.S. call to cancel a ground operation in southern Gaza's Rafah City, where about 1.5 million displaced Palestinians have sought shelter, but agreed to send a delegation to Washington for discussions.

The White House confirmed in a statement that Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed in a phone call on Monday that their teams would meet "soon" in Washington to "exchange views and discuss alternative approaches" to a major ground operation in Rafah.

Netanyahu's office said in a statement that the delegation, led by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, will be dispatched next week "for the sake of the continuation of the fighting."

Earlier on Tuesday, Netanyahu said in an address to the parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that a ground assault is the only way to defeat Hamas militants in Rafah. He said he "made it as clear as possible" to Biden that Israel is "determined to complete the elimination of (Hamas) battalions in Rafah, and there is no way to do this without a ground incursion."

Meanwhile, the Gaza ceasefire talks continued in Doha though Israel's Mossad intelligence agency chief David Barnea had left the city.

The talks will continue between technical teams, said Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari at a media briefing.

"The negotiations are ongoing, and what gives us optimism right now is that we resume the negotiations in such a process," he said, adding that it's still too early to announce any success.

Al-Ansari also cautioned against the risk of an Israeli attack on Rafah, saying any operation in the southernmost city of the Gaza Strip would bring disaster.

The Israeli raid on the devastated Palestinian territory's largest hospital, Al Shifa Hospital, for a second time on Tuesday aroused condemnation from Hamas, whose chief accused Israel of sabotaging talks for a Gaza truce.

Gaza hunger warnings grow

Since the conflict began on October 7, 2023, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has reached at least 31,819, said Hamas-run health ministry.

Months of conflict have pushed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the besieged territory to the brink of famine.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) released a report, saying that "famine is imminent in the northern governorates and projected to occur anytime between mid-March and May 2024."

The conflict has left about 1.1 million people, about half of Gaza's population, experiencing "catastrophic" hunger, according to the report.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said Israel was blocking aid and conducting the conflict in a way that "may amount to the use of starvation as a method of war."

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees warned on social media platform X that at least 23 children have already died of acute malnutrition and an increasing number of children are on the brink of death due to starvation, mainly in northern Gaza.

Israel has denied it was obstructing aid trucks. Commenting on the report on X, the office of Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, an Israeli governmental body, said that more than 200,000 tonnes of food entered Gaza since the start of the conflict, over 1,250 packages were airdropped and over 150 aid trucks reached northern Gaza in the last two weeks.

(With input from agencies)