Israel lacks 'credible plan' to safeguard Rafah civilians, says Blinken

lacked a "credible plan" to protect some 1.4 million Palestinian civilians in Rafah and warned an Israeli attack could create an insurgency by failing to kill all Hamas fighters in the southern Gazan city.

Hamas fighters, he said, already are returning to areas of northern Gaza that Israel claimed to have cleared.of Rafah has helped fuel the deepest tensions in relations between Israel and its main ally in generations. Hamas' use of civilian infrastructure and tunnels "makes it very difficult to determine, particularly in the midst of war," what happened in specific instances, Blinken said, defending the report criticized by some lawmakers of Biden's Democratic Party and human rights groups.

If Israel "launches this major military operation to Rafah, then there are certain systems that we're not going to be supporting and supplying for that operation," said Blinken.Rafah is hosting some 1.

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