McCaul says Rafah invasion is “last step” towards Israeli military “goal”

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) argued Sunday that Israel’s invasion of Rafah is the final step in completing its military campaign in Gaza, as President Biden threatens to suspend weapons in the Gaza Strip. case of a large-scale invasion.

“Now, of course, you want the humanitarian conditions to be in place. Of course, you want the tenants to be in place, but saying you can’t invade Rafah… we’re telling the Israelis, dictating their military strategy.” McCaul said Sunday in an interview with ABC News’ ‘This Week.’ “This is the last point and the last step in completing your military objective.”

Biden warned last week that he would stop supplies of offensive weapons to Israel, including bombs and artillery shells, if the country’s forces launched an invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza. The White House has repeatedly urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to send forces to Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians seek refuge amid the violence.

“For us to step in and say, ‘No, you can’t go to Rafah and finish a job…’ I think it’s equivalent to an arms embargo,” McCaul said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long maintained that the move to Rafah is necessary to go after the leaders of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007 and carried out the October 7 surprise attack on Israel. , which killed around 1,200 people. .

McCaul suggested that Biden’s warning “may not matter” given Netanyahu’s position.

“With regard to Israel, Netanyahu said – and I talked to him – ‘I will do it alone if I have to,’” McCaul said. “What matters is the signal and the message we’re sending to the rest of the world that you can’t count on the United States, you can’t trust the United States. Our allies … and our enemies see that too.”

Biden’s gun suspension threat drew criticism from several Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (La.), who said he hoped Biden was having a “senior moment” when he made the threat.

He suggested that Biden’s comments violated what the House speaker saw as promises to secure Johnson’s support for the $95 billion emergency foreign aid package.

“I hope – I believe he’s off script,” Johnson said. “I don’t think that was something the team told him to say. I hope it’s an important moment, because that would be a big departure from what is supposed to be politics there.”

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Florida) called the threat “disgusting” and accused Biden of being part of the “pro-Hamas” group in the Democratic Party.

In a statement to The Hill last week, a senior Biden administration official said: “President Biden shares Israel’s goal of dismantling Hamas and has done more than any world leader to support Israel as it has defended itself since October 7th”.

“The president was very clear last night[week]as it has always been: although the United States continues to ensure that Israel has all the military means necessary to defend itself against all of its enemies, including Hamas, it does not want to provide material support for an operation that we oppose – especially since we believe that There are alternative ways in which Israel can achieve its objectives,” the official added.

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story