US Offers Intel on Location of Hamas Leaders if Israel Holds Back in Rafah: Report

Washington: In a bid to prevent a full-scale ground invasion in Gaza's Rafah city, the US administration of Joe Biden is willing to offer up additional assistance to Israel — including valuable intel on possible locations of Hamas leaders  — if it agrees to hold back in its ongoing military operation, Washington Post reported. Citing four anonymous individuals familiar with the offer, the Washington Post reported that the Biden administration is willing to offer up ‘sensitive’ intelligence that would help Israel pinpoint the location of Hamas leaders and their hidden tunnel networks. 

News of this apparent American intelligence offering coincides with a Times of Israel report which says that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar — a key figure behind the October 7 attacks — is not actually hiding in Rafah despite widespread claims to the contrary. Eliminating Sinwar and other senior Hamas leaders is one of the major stated goals of the operation in Rafah. 

Two officials told Times of Israel that there is a lack of certainty on where exactly Sinwar is hiding though a recent intelligence assessment placed him in underground tunnels in Khan Younis.

Circling back to the Washington Post report, the US is also working closely with Egypt to find and cut off tunnels that cross the Egypt-Gaza border near Rafah in a bid to keep Hamas from replenishing itself militarily. 

 The report also notes that American officials are concerned by Israeli evacuation plans for hundreds of thousands of Gazans who are currently sheltering in Rafah.

US officials reportedly told their Israeli counterparts that it would take months to safely relocate those seeking refuge in the city and that the Gazans cannot simply be moved into barren and bombarded sections of Gaza. The officials have reportedly urged Israel to provide all the basic infrastructure necessary to sustain the Gazans and not simply expose them to famine and disease conditions. 

In this regard, US officials have reportedly been advising their counterparts in great detail on how to implement a humanitarian plan in Rafah, down to how many tents and how much water would be required to sustain the refugee population. 

The US is also reportedly offering to provide thousands of shelters and help setting up the delivery systems for food, water and medicine for those being evacuated from Rafah. 

All this reportedly came up during the last seven weeks as US officials held discussions with Israeli counterparts on the various specifics of the combat operations in Rafah. The US has publicly expressed its opposition to any major military operations in Rafah due to concerns over collateral damage and the possibility of further aggravating the humanitarian disaster already unfolding in Gaza. 

Additionally, as per the Washington Post report, the US also believes that Yahya Sinwar would welcome a major Israeli operation in Rafah as a protracted battle in the city, with plenty of collateral damage, would further isolate Israel on the world stage. 

Israel, for its part, has publically defended its decision to target Rafah as a necessary step to eliminating Hamas in Gaza.

While its leadership has pushed back against the US warning that Washington could cut off military aid in response to a full-scale Rafah invasion, reports indicate that Israel is attempting to moderate its combat operations to avoid crossing red lines laid out by the US.