The US does not believe Israel has launched a full-scale invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, according to White House spokesman John Kirby.
He spoke hours after Israeli forces reached the city’s center and reportedly seized a strategically important hill overlooking the nearby border with Egypt.
US President Joe Biden had stated earlier this month that he would limit weapons supplies to Israel if it entered the “population centres” of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of civilians are believed to be sheltering.
Kirby was also questioned about an Israeli strike and subsequent fire that killed at least 45 Palestinians—many of them women, children, or elderly—at a camp for displaced people on Sunday.
Israel claims the strike targeted and killed two senior Hamas officials and believes the fire may have been caused by an explosion at a nearby Hamas weapons store.
Speaking to reporters, Kirby described images from the strike’s aftermath as “heartbreaking” and “horrific.”
“There should be no innocent life lost here as a result of this conflict,” he added.
The US State Department said it is closely watching for the Israeli military to conduct a quick and thorough investigation into the strike.
When questioned about whether previous such investigations had led to accountability, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller declined to name specific cases.
“You cannot reach a conclusion about the results of these investigations in the middle of a conflict,” he said.
When asked whether the strike had violated the limits set by President Biden, Kirby said he had “no policy changes to speak to.”
“We don’t support, we won’t support a major ground operation in Rafah,” Kirby stated.
“The president said that, should that occur, then it might make him have to make different decisions in terms of support.
“We haven’t seen that happen at this point. We have not seen them smash into Rafah.
“We have not seen them go in with large units, large numbers of troops, in columns and formations in some sort of coordinated maneuver against multiple targets on the ground.”
Israel maintains it cannot achieve victory in its seven-month war against Hamas in Gaza without taking Rafah and has rejected warnings of catastrophic humanitarian consequences.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) first began what it called “targeted” ground operations against Hamas fighters and infrastructure in the east of Rafah on 6 May.
Since then, tanks and troops have gradually pushed into built-up eastern and central areas while also moving northwards along the 13 km (8-mile) border with Egypt.
Speaking to CNN on 8 May, President Biden said he had made it clear to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, to deal with that problem.”
He said he had not suspended the supply of weapons at that point because Israel had not yet “gone into the population centres” in Rafah and that its operations had been “right on the border.”
The president faces growing calls at home to put greater pressure on the Israeli government to ensure everything is done to minimize the humanitarian impact of the conflict.
Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen, who visited Gaza in January, told the Washington Post: “The escalating civilian death toll and deepening humanitarian catastrophe make clear that the Biden administration should pause additional offensive military assistance to the Netanyahu government until we know that all the president’s requests, including with respect to Rafah and the urgent delivery of humanitarian assistance, will be respected.”