Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told parliament Tuesday that a planned ground operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip will move forward, amid pressure from the United States to show restraint.

Netanyahu told members of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that he recognizes Israel and the United States "have a disagreement" about Israel's "need to enter Rafah."

But, he added, there was no disagreement "about the need to eliminate Hamas."

Netanyahu confirmed Friday that Israel Defense Forces were preparing for ground operations in Rafah after he approved his right-wing government coalition's plan for the offensive.

"We do not see a way to eliminate Hamas militarily without destroying these remaining battalions," he said to members of Israel's parliament, adding how "we are determined to do it."

President Joe Biden expressed concerns to Netanyahu on Monday about the possible attack on Rafah. The White House said Israel did not have a plan to safely move Palestinian civilians from the area before an attack.

More than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed since Hamas carried out its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Netanyahu said that "out of respect" for the American president, the two leaders had agreed on a way in which the United States "could present their ideas to us, especially on the humanitarian side, which we, of course, share this desire to allow an orderly exit of the population and provide aid to the civilian population."

Israel agreed to send to Washington "a senior interagency team composed of military, intelligence and humanitarian officials," according to White House officials.

While U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday that Hamas should not be granted a safe haven anywhere, he called a possible Rafah ground operation near Egypt's border "a mistake."

The IDF offensive -- where over 1 million Palestinians are taking refuge in a city which had a pre-war population of nearly 250,000 -- "would lead to more innocent civilian deaths, worsen the already dire humanitarian crisis, deepen the anarchy in Gaza and further isolate Israel internationally," he said.

Netanyahu told the Knesset that Israel is looking at the feasibility of private companies or other outside organizations being able to distribute crucial aid to Palestinians in Gaza.

"From Israel's standpoint, there is nothing preventing Gazans from leaving, but there aren't countries in the world that are ready to receive them," he said.

Major Rafah operation would be ‘mistake,’ Biden told Netanyahu

President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke Monday for the first time in a month, during which Biden seemingly offered his strongest warnings against an all-out Israeli attack on Rafah.

The prospect of fighting in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, was the main focus of the conversation. National security adviser Jake Sullivan, briefing reporters at the White House after the call, said Biden requested Israel send a team to hear the administration’s concerns about Rafah and brief his aides on their planning. Netanyahu agreed, and that discussion is scheduled to happen in the coming days.

Paraphrasing what Biden told Netanyahu over the phone, Sullivan said, “I want you to understand, Mr. Prime Minister, exactly where I am on this. I am for the defeat of Hamas. I believe that they are an evil terrorist group with not just Israeli, but American blood on their hands. At the same time, I believe that to get to that you need a strategy that works, and that strategy should not involve a major military operation that puts thousands and thousands of innocent civilian lives at risk in Rafah. There is a better way.”

Speaking as himself, Sullivan noted “the president explained why he is so deeply concerned about the prospect of Israel conducting major military operations in Rafah,” adding that “a major ground operation there would be a mistake.”

Asked if this was the “come to Jesus meeting” the world heard Biden promise to have with Netanyahu in a hot mic moment following his State of the Union address, Sullivan told reporters: “I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.”

The call between Biden and Netanyahu came at a crucial moment in the Gaza war. It is the first time the leaders spoke since Biden complimented a speech given by Chuck Schumer, in which the Senate Majority Leader said Netahyahu was hurting Israel’s standing in the world and called for new elections in Tel Aviv. Though Biden did not explicitly echo that sentiment, his praise of it underscored the growing White House frustration with Netanyahu’s prosecution of the war.

That frustration extends to some former senior officials in Israel. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wrote a letter to Schumer commending him for the speech. “I thank you on behalf of myself and many others in Israel, for the courage that you have showed in saying what so many of us Jews across the world and traditional supporters of Israel feel today,” he said in a letter obtained by POLITICO. “The prime minister of Israel is not worthy of the responsibilities bestowed upon him.”

Netanyahu denounced Schumer’s speech and has shown no signs of moderating his approach. He and members of Israel’s War Cabinet say an invasion of Rafah will launch within weeks. Israel estimates that about four Hamas battalions — roughly 3,000 militants, the same number of fighters Hamas used to perpetrate the Oct. 7 attack — are in and underneath Rafah.

A parade of U.S. officials have said an operation leading to many civilian deaths would be unacceptable to the administration, capped by Biden telling MSNBC earlier this month that such an event would cross his “red line.” The White House’s preference would be a smaller, more precise campaign to strike high-value Hamas targets.

The U.S., alongside Qatar and Egypt, is looking to broker a six-week cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that would see prisoners and hostages released and more aid distributed throughout Gaza.

Looming over all of it is growing tension between the governments of Israel and the U.S.

Biden is upset that Netanyahu won’t allow more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza by land, leading the U.S. to work with allies to drop assistance from the air and ship it via sea. His private complaints about Netanyahu have grown in recent weeks and he has told close advisers he believes that the prime minister was primarily concerned about hanging onto power — and was willing to extend the war to do so, according to two people familiar with the president’s thinking though not authorized to speak publicly about it.

Netanyahu, for his part, has been enraged that Biden keeps painting him as a far-right radical, unfeeling toward the enclave’s suffering Palestinians. And he was livid at what he deemed to be Schumer’s efforts to interfere with a sovereign nation’s political future, two Israeli officials said.

Monday’s phone call was a chance to close the yawning gap between them. Sullivan said the discussion was “businesslike” and did not end abruptly. Both leaders gave each other the time to make their points, the national security adviser asserted.

The call came amid a rapidly deteriorating situation in the area. The United Nations’ food agency reported Monday that famine in northern Gaza was “imminent,” noting continued fighting might push the whole territory’s 2.2 million people to the brink of starvation.

Last week, the Israeli military permitted a small convoy of aid trucks to enter northern Gaza, an area still ravaged by the war that began in October, leading residents to eat grass and animal feed. Then on Saturday, the first aid to reach Gaza’s shores by sea in two decades arrived and was fully unloaded on a makeshift jetty.

Netanyahu agrees to send Israeli officials to Washington to discuss prospective Rafah operation

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday agreed to send a team of Israeli officials to Washington to discuss with Biden administration officials a prospective Rafah operation as each side is looking to make “clear to the other its perspective,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.

The agreement to hold talks about Rafah came as Biden and Netanyahu spoke Monday, their first interaction in more than a month, as the divide has grown between allies over the food crisis in Gaza and Israel's conduct during the war, according to the White House. Sullivan said the talks will happen in the coming days and are expected to involve military, intelligence and humanitarian experts.

The White House has been skeptical of Netanyahu’s plan to carry out an operation in the southern city of Rafah, where about 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, as Israel looks to eliminate Hamas following the militant group's deadly Oct. 7 attack.

Sullivan said Biden in the call once again urged Netanyahu not to carry out a Rafah operation. At the coming talks, he said U.S. officials will lay out “an alternative approach that would target key Hamas elements in Rafah and secure the Egypt-Gaza border without a major ground invasion.”

“The president has rejected, and did again today, the straw man that raising questions about Rafah is the same as raising questions about defeating Hamas," Sullivan said. "That’s just nonsense. Our position is that Hamas should not be allowed a safe haven in Rafah or anywhere else, but a major ground operation there would be a mistake. It would lead to more innocent civilian deaths, worsen the already dire humanitarian crisis, deepen the anarchy in Gaza and further isolate Israel internationally.”

The call comes after Republicans in Washington and Israeli officials were quick to express outrage after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer sharply criticized Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza and called for Israel to hold new elections. They accused the Democratic leader of breaking the unwritten rule against interfering in a close ally’s electoral politics.

Biden hasn't endorsed Schumer's call for election but said he thought he gave a “good speech” that reflected the concerns of many Americans. Netanyahu raised concerns about the calls by Schumer for new elections, Sullivan said.

Biden administration officials have warned that they would not support an operation in Rafah without the Israelis presenting a credible plan to ensure the safety of innocent Palestinian civilians. Israel has yet to present such a plan, according to White House officials.

Netanyahu in a statement after the call made no direct mention of the tension.

“We discussed the latest developments in the war, including Israel’s commitment to achieving all of the war’s goals: Eliminating Hamas, freeing all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza never (again) constitutes a threat to Israel — while providing the necessary humanitarian aid that will assist in achieving these goals,” Netanyahu said.

The Biden-Netanyahu call also came as a new report warned that “famine is imminent” in northern Gaza, where 70% of the remaining population is experiencing catastrophic hunger, and that a further escalation of the war could push around half of Gaza’s population to the brink of starvation. The report came from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a partnership of more than a dozen governments, U.N. aid and other agencies that determines the severity of food crises.

Netanyahu lashed out against the American criticism on Sunday, describing calls for a new election as “wholly inappropriate.”

Netanyahu told Fox News Channel that Israel never would have called for a new U.S. election after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and he denounced Schumer’s comments as inappropriate.

“We’re not a banana republic,” he said. “The people of Israel will choose when they will have elections, and who they’ll elect, and it’s not something that will be foisted on us.”

Even as they express frustration about aspects of the Israeli operations, the White House acknowledges that Israel has made significant progress in degrading Hamas. And Sullivan revealed on Monday that an Israeli operation last week killed Hamas' third in command, Marwan Issa.

“The president told the prime minister again today that we share the goal of defeating Hamas, but we just believe you need a coherent and sustainable strategy to make that happen,” Sullivan said.

Biden after his State of the Union address earlier this month was caught on a hot mic telling a Democratic ally that he has told Netanyahu they would have a “come to Jesus” meeting over the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. His frustration with Netanyahu’s prosecution of the war was also on display in a recent MSNBC interview, in which he asserted Netanyahu was “hurting Israel.”

“He has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas,” Biden said of Netanyahu in the MSNBC interview. “But he must, he must, he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken. He’s hurting ... in my view, he’s hurting Israel more than helping Israel.”

The president announced during his State of the Union address that the U.S. military would help establish a temporary pier aimed at boosting the amount of aid getting into the territory. The U.S. military has also been air-dropping aid into Gaza.

The Biden administration resorted to the unusual workarounds after months of appealing to Israel, a top recipient of military aid, to step up access and protection for trucks bearing humanitarian goods for Gaza.

The five-month war was triggered after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel in a surprise attack, rampaging through communities, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and taking around 250 hostages.

Israel responded with one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history. The war has killed over 31,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Around 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have fled their homes, and a quarter of the population faces starvation.

Biden speaks with Netanyahu amid escalating tensions in U.S.-Israel, warns against Rafah invasion

During a critical phone call Monday, President Joe Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against Israel's carrying out a planned military operation in Rafah, the White House said.

"Our position is that Hamas should not be allowed a safe haven in Rafah or anywhere else, but a major ground operation there would be a mistake," national security adviser Jake Sullivan said at the White House briefing where he outlined the leaders' conversation.

"It would lead to more innocent civilian deaths, worsen the already dire humanitarian crisis, deepen the anarchy in Gaza and further isolate Israel internationally," Sullivan added.

He said more than a million people have taken refuge in Rafah, a city in the southwestern Gaza Strip along Egypt's border, after having moved away from Gaza City and Khan Younis.

"They have nowhere else to go," Sullivan said. "Israel has not presented us or the world with a plan for how or where they would safely move those civilians, let alone feed and house them and ensure access to basic things like sanitation."

Sullivan noted that Rafah is a primary entry point for humanitarian assistance entering Gaza from Egypt and Israel, and he warned that "an invasion would shut that down or at least put it at great risk."

During the call, Biden asked Netanyahu to send to Washington “a senior interagency team composed of military, intelligence and humanitarian officials” in the coming days to hear U.S. concerns about an invasion of Rafah, Sullivan said. He confirmed that Netanyahu agreed to the invitation.

Notably, Sullivan said U.S. officials now expect that Israel wouldn't invade Rafah until that conversation takes place. The meeting will be an opportunity for the U.S. "to lay out an alternative approach that would target key Hamas elements in Rafah and secure the Egypt-Gaza border without a major ground invasion," he added.

Sullivan rejected questions about whether an Israeli invasion of Rafah would be a "red line" for Biden, as the president had indicated in a recent interview on MSNBC.

Biden and Netanyahu, who last spoke to each other over a month ago, on Feb. 15, also discussed the prospects of a weekslong cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas that would involve the release of hostages who have been held in Gaza since the Oct. 7 attack.

"We would look to build on that cease-fire into something more enduring and use the space created by a cessation of hostilities to surge humanitarian assistance at a vital moment," Sullivan said. "So far, this deal has been more elusive than we would have hoped."

Sullivan said that while Israel has made "significant progress" battling Hamas in its military operations in Gaza, the effect on innocent Palestinians has been devastating. He said more civilians have died in this conflict than in all wars in Gaza combined.

"The president has repeatedly made the point that continuing military operations need to be connected to a clear strategic end game," Sullivan said. "The president told the prime minister again today that we share the goal of defeating Hamas, but we just believe you need a coherent and sustainable strategy to make that happen."

A White House readout of the call reiterated Sullivan’s description of the discussion.

The White House said that Biden had also “stressed the urgent need to significantly increase the flow of lifesaving aid reaching those in need throughout Gaza, with special emphasis on the north.”

The White House is considering how to respond if the Israeli government ignores the administration’s warnings not to launch a ground invasion in Rafah without a credible plan for Palestinian civilians. Last week, Netanyahu’s office said that he had approved plans for a ground offensive there and that the military was “preparing for the operational side and for the evacuation of the population.”

Monday’s call was the 20th between Biden and Netanyahu since Hamas’ brutal assault on Israel on Oct. 7. It also marks the longest gap between calls — 32 days. Previously, the longest the two had gone without speaking was 26 days, from Dec. 23 to Jan. 19.

Biden’s relationship with Netanyahu has been on shaky ground for months as he faces pressure from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party over U.S. support for Israel as tens of thousands of Palestinians have died in Gaza. Biden said in a recent interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart that an invasion of Rafah by the Israel Defense Forces would be a “red line” for him, though he said he would never leave Israel’s side.

“There’s no red line where I would cut off all weapons so they don’t have the Iron Dome to protect them. But there’s red lines where if he crosses them ... he cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead,” he said, referring to Netanyahu.

Biden didn’t elaborate on any potential consequences if Israel does invade Rafah.

“There’s other ways to deal, to get to, to deal with the trauma caused by Hamas,” he said.

Last week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the highest-ranking Jewish U.S. official, said in a speech on the Senate floor that Netanyahu has “lost his way” and called for new elections to replace him and his far-right governing coalition. It was met with criticism from Republicans and some Democrats.

Biden said that it was a “good speech” and that Schumer “expressed a serious concern shared not only by him but by many Americans.”

Netanyahu rejected Schumer’s proposal in an interview Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“I think what he said is totally inappropriate,” Netanyahu said. “It’s inappropriate to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there. That’s something that Israel, the Israeli public does on its own, and we’re not a banana republic.”