(NewsNation) — U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke over the phone Monday amid concerns that a ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah could begin soon.
According to a readout of the meeting, Biden “reaffirmed his message on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day” and Biden updated Netanyahu on efforts to secure a hostage deal.
During the call, Biden also “reiterated his clear position on Rafah.”
Israel’s military on Monday ordered Palestinians in areas of Rafah to start evacuating, complicating efforts by mediators to broker a cease-fire deal. Qatar, a key mediator, and Hamas have said an invasion of Rafah could derail the talks, while United States officials have urged Israel against the invasion.
Axios reported that the Biden administration even put a shipment of U.S.-made ammunition that was supposed to go to Israel on hold, the first time since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel that the U.S. has stopped a weapons delivery for the country. Israeli officials told Axios that this raised “serious concerns” for the government, sending them “scrambling to understand why the shipment was held.”
About 1.4 million Palestinians, which is about half of Gaza’s population, according to the Associated Press, are in Rafah. Many of them fled there from the north to escape Israel’s bombardment, which has already killed more than 34,500 people, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
Those in Rafah live in densely packed tent camps or overflowing U.N. shelters or crowded apartments, the Associated Press reported, and are dependent on international aid for food, with sanitation systems and medical facilities infrastructure crippled.
“More than 200 days of war have taken an unimaginable toll on the lives of children,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement Monday. “Rafah is now a city of children, who have nowhere safe to go in Gaza. If large scale military operations start, not only will children be at risk from the violence, but also from chaos and panic, and at a time where their physical and mental states are already weakened.”
Warning of “a further catastrophe” for the around 600,000 children currently taking shelter in the enclave, UNICEF said they are especially vulnerable because of the “likely intensity of the violence, with potential evacuation corridors likely mined or littered with unexploded ordnance; and shelter and services in areas for relocation very likely to be limited.”
Even with the international pressure not to, Netanyahu said last week Israel would enter Rafah to destroy Hamas’ battalions there “with or without a deal.”
NewsNation digital producer Tanya Noury and The Associated Press contributed to this report.