Key Points
(Bloomberg) -- The US and Israel agreed to hold an in-person meeting to discuss their dispute over an expected Israeli invasion of the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scrapped an earlier visit amid increasingly sour ties..
It said the US expressed its concerns with various courses of action in Rafah," while Israel agreed to take these concerns into account and to have follow up discussions between experts.".
That appeared to mark a concession, however small, by Netanyahu, who has so far publicly dismissed US warnings about his plans for a full-scale attack on Rafah as part of his forces bid to root out Hamas militants in the wake of the groups Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel..
The US has urged Israel to protect the more than 1 million displaced Palestinians sheltering in Rafah, with Biden calling an invasion a red line" and Secretary of State Antony Blinken warning an attack would worsen the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip..
The meeting was initially meant to take place in person, but Netanyahu told his delegation not to travel to Washington after the US declined to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza..
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