The US has approved a potential Israeli Rafah operation in exchange for the Jewish state not conducting counterstrikes on Iran, according to a Thursday report from the Qatari newspaper The New Arab.
A senior official told The New Arab that “Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu managed to obtain American approval for a military operation in Rafah, in exchange for [Israel] refraining from carrying out a wide military operation against Iran in response to its recent attack.”
He claimed that “discourse of an Israeli response to Iran contradicts the desires of the American administration, and is not realistic, given the Israeli claims that the United States played the major role in repelling the Iranian attack and preventing its success.”
The Jerusalem Post reported that “the IDF carried out airstrikes [overnight on Thursday] on several areas adjacent to the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt,” adding that “the relevant officials in Egypt were notified before the execution of some of these strikes, which came in the Philadelphi axis at a space adjacent to the border with Egypt.
The report comes amongst pubic statements from some Israeli officials expressing desire to retaliate against Iran, with a report published by the KAN broadcasting channel claimed that Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Herzog, stated on Thursday that “Israel will react to Iran, and it won’t take years – soon Iran’s missiles will be equipped with nuclear warheads.”
The Qatar report also noted that Egypt is exemplifying “full readiness and preparedness of [its] forces stationed in northern Sinai, along the 14-kilometer border strip with the Gaza Strip, as part of a plan to deal with the scenario of a ground invasion in Rafah.”
