Vice President Kamala Harris said on Sunday that the administration had not ruled out “consequences” for Israel if it defied President Joe Biden and attacked Hamas in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Biden has warned Israel publicly not to attack Hamas in Rafah, due to the presence of large numbers of civilians there, which the terrorist group uses as human shields. Israel says that it cannot win the war without defeating the last four Hamas battalions in Rafah.
Harris’s spoke to ABC News on Sunday, telling a reporter that “I have studied the maps” of southern Gaza:
In a wide-ranging new interview with ABC News, Vice President Kamala Harris suggested there could be “consequences” for Israel if it moves ahead with a planned invasion of Rafah in its pursuit of Hamas fighters.
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[Senior congressional correspondent Rachel] Scott followed up: “Are you ruling out that there would be consequences from the United States?”
“I am ruling out nothing,” Harris replied.
Israel says it can move civilians to areas near Rafah during the fighting.
On Friday, after meeting with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that Israel intends to enter Rafah. He added that while he would prefer to do so with U.S. support, “if we need to, we will do it alone.”
Critics say that the Biden administration is playing into Hamas’s strategy by preventing Israel from destroying it.
