The US-Israel talks focused on the potential operation in the southern Gaza city that has exposed one of the deepest rifts between the two allies.
| Top American and Israeli officials held virtual talks on Monday as the US pushed alternatives to the ground assault against Hamas under consideration by Israelis in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, a move the US opposes on humanitarian grounds and that has frayed relations between the two allies.
The more than two-and-a-half-hour meeting by secure video conference was described by both sides as constructive and productive, as Washington encourages the Israelis to avoid an all-out assault on the city, where an estimated four battalions of Hamas fighters are dispersed among more than 1.3 million civilians.
“They agreed that they share the objective to see Hamas defeated in Rafah,” the US and Israeli teams known as the Strategic Consultative Group said in a joint statement released by the White House. The virtual meeting came a week after planned in-person talks were nixed by Mr Netanyahu when the US did not veto a UN resolution that called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
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