President Joe Biden is facing mounting calls from fellow Democrats to take forceful action to prevent Israel from launching a major military offensive in the Gaza Strip city of Rafah. Nearly half of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have fled to Rafah near the Egyptian border amid the Israel-Gaza war.
In a letter to the White House, 57 Democratic members of the House of Representatives urged Biden to leverage US military aid to Israel as a means of dissuading Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government from a large-scale assault on Rafah.
"We urge you to invoke existing law and policy to immediately withhold certain offensive military aid...in order to preempt a full-scale assault on Rafah," stated the letter led by Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Madeleine Dean.
Biden has steadfastly supported Israel's military campaign against Hamas terrorists in Gaza, but that stance has become a political liability for the president, especially among younger Democratic voters. It has sparked protest votes in Democratic primaries as well as pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses nationwide.
With Biden facing a tough re-election fight against his Republican predecessor Donald Trump, the president's Gaza policy is causing concerns within his party.
On May 1, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said after meeting Netanyahu that the US has not received details from Israel on how civilians would be protected in a Rafah offensive. He reiterated that Washington cannot condone such an attack.
Israel's key objectives in targeting Rafah are eliminating the remaining Hamas battalions operating in the area, and recovering the Israeli hostages held by Hamas for over 200 days. Despite Blinken's warning and UN predictions of a "tragic" outcome, Netanyahu insisted Israel's operation targeting Rafah would move forward as planned.
