Gaza War Waged At Election Time Is Biden's Nightmare

Israeli tanks and armoured cars have been seen near al-Awda mosque in the centre of Rafah, while 45 people were killed in a strike at a camp in the east of the city.

- KIM SENGUPTA

This, however, still does not mean that a "major ground operation" in the city is under way, according to the Biden administration.

The massacre at Tel al-Sultan, where many of the victims were children, the elderly and women burnt to death, was “heartbreaking and horrific” said White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby, adding: “There should be no innocent life lost here as a result of this conflict.”

The “red line” for Joe Biden, supposedly, was the killing of civilians in a Rafah operation. On 8 May, he stressed that it had been made clear to Benjamin Netanyahu that “if they [the Israeli military] go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that they have been using historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, to deal with that problem”.

The US president, among many other Western leaders, has repeatedly asked Israel not to carry out an offensive into Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of civilians have taken refuge from the carnage that has taken place in the rest of Gaza.