One of the officials said the troop movement began days ago and that the US does not know whether a larger incursion into Rafah will take place within days or weeks.
The US continues to urge Israel not to “crush” Rafah in a major offensive and to ensure appropriate humanitarian precautions, the second official said.
On Tuesday morning, Israeli forces advanced deeper into the residential areas of eastern Rafah, with the NBC News team on the ground seeing the vehicles advancing toward the Al-Jneina neighborhood.
About 450,000 people have fled Rafah since Israel ordered a partial evacuation a week ago and sent in tanks, the UN said on Tuesday.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that a full-scale ground attack on Rafah would not achieve Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stated pledge to eliminate Hamas.
“Even if they go in and take heavy action in Rafah, there will still be thousands of armed Hamas left,” Blinken said, noting that “we have seen, in areas that Israel deforested in the north, even in Khan Younis, Hamas is back.”
UN human rights chief Volker Türk he said Sunday that a large-scale Israeli military operation in Rafah “must not take place”.
“The latest evacuation orders affect close to a million people in Rafah. So where should they go now?” he said. “There is no safe place in Gaza. I reiterate: a large-scale offensive in Rafah cannot take place.”
President Joe Biden said last week that the US will not transfer offensive weapons to Israel if it invades Rafah. The move was met with concern and anger by some Israeli officials.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan reiterated Monday that the administration does not view Israel as a genocide. He also expressed outrage at videos showing Israeli settlers attacking a humanitarian aid convoy on its way to the Erez crossing in northern Gaza. The US and others have been pressing Israel to allow more aid to Gaza, where humanitarian groups have warned that food and fuel are running low, but some in Israel oppose deliveries during the war.
“It’s an absolute outrage that there are people attacking and looting these vehicles,” Sullivan told reporters at the White House. “It is completely and totally unacceptable behavior.”
More than 35,000 people in Gaza have been killed, according to the Ministry of Health in the enclave governed by Hamas, since the beginning of the war, with the October 7 terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas. The attacks killed more than 1,200 people in Israel, the Israeli prime minister’s office said, and Hamas also took about 250 other people hostage.
More than 130 people remain held captive in Gaza, and at least a quarter of the hostages are believed to be dead.
Phil Helsel, Raf Sanchez It is Reuters contributed.
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