US push­es full-court press to stop Israel oper­a­tions in Rafah

The Biden admin­is­tra­tion is des­per­ate­ly try­ing to con­vince Israel not to car­ry out a full-scale mil­i­tary oper­a­tion in Rafah, the south­ern city in Gaza where more than 1 mil­lion Pales­tini­ans are shel­ter­ing from the front lines.
Pres­i­dent Joe Biden spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Min­is­ter Ben­jamin Netanyahu on Mon­day, which was their first con­ver­sa­tion in more than a month, and he agreed to send an inter­a­gency del­e­ga­tion to Wash­ing­ton, D.C., to meet with U.S. lead­ers to dis­cuss “an alter­na­tive approach that would tar­get key Hamas ele­ments in Rafah and secure the Egypt-Gaza bor­der with­out a major ground inva­sion,” Biden’s nation­al secu­ri­ty advis­er Jake Sul­li­van said on Mon­day.
Addi­tion­al­ly, U.S. Sec­re­tary …