Netanyahu pledges to ignore Biden’s ‘red line’ and invade Rafah

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brushed off President Joe Biden’s concerns and criticisms, vowing to move forward with Israel’s military occupation in Gaza.

Biden insisted on Saturday that the Israeli leader’s strategy for the country’s war against Hamas is “hurting Israel more than helping.” When asked about Rafah, he added, “It is a red line,” attempting to put pressure on Netanyahu to do more to protect Palestinians.

Netanyahu was asked the following day whether Israeli forces would push into Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip and a refuge for millions of Palestinians. “We’ll go there. We’re not going to leave. You know, I have a red line. You know what the red line is, that October 7 doesn’t happen again,” he said, referring to Hamas’s brutal massacre that killed about 1,200 Israelis and triggered the current conflict. “Never happens again.”