Netanyahu orders Israeli military to plan for evacuation of Rafah ahead of ground assault

Amna Nawaz:

Today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to develop plans to evacuate Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza.

Its pre-October 7 population was 100,000. Today, Gazans from all over the strip have filled tent cities there. More than half of Gaza's 2.3 million people have fled to Rafah. And even before today's order, Israel has been maintaining pressure on Rafah, launching dozens of airstrikes.

At the same time, there's progress on talks that would pause the fighting.

Nick Schifrin is here with more on that.

Nick, you have new details on the hostage negotiations. What do we know?

Nick Schifrin:

A U.S. official tonight confirms to me that Bill Burns, the director of the CIA, will head to Cairo soon to participate in another round of negotiations over a hostage deal.

And he has been the crucial U.S. official leading those negotiations. And as a reminder of how we got here, two weeks ago, Israel agreed to a plan negotiated by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt to an initial six-week pause that would be extended in three phases of hostage releases.

Hamas' counterproposal this week required an Israeli withdrawal first from cities, then all of Gaza. Israel interpreted that counterproposal as Hamas remaining in power after the war. But U.S. officials tell me that, while that was going on, there's been progress in those negotiations just in the last few days, despite Netanyahu's public statements.

Remember, he called Hamas' counterproposal — quote — "delusional," and of course, what you mentioned at the top of this, threatening to expand the war into Rafah. So Burns is hoping to maintain that progress that officials tell me has been made in the last few days, but also keep pressure on Netanyahu to take these negotiations seriously.

The question for Netanyahu is, will he allow his spy chief, David Barnea, the head of Mossad, who's been leading the Israeli negotiations — you see him there — to go to Cairo to keep the negotiations going?

And this is crucial, Amna, as we have been talking about. The U.S. believes that even a temporary — even a temporary pause is the key to trying to unlock its broader goals across the region, Gaza reconstruction, Gaza governance after the war, and, of course, the big goals, two-state solution and normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Amna Nawaz:

As you mentioned, though, Netanyahu is threatening to expand the war, not pause it, let alone stop it.

So, how difficult is that going to be in a place like Rafah?

Nick Schifrin:

Extremely difficult.

As you pointed out, more than a million people are living in Rafah. That is 10 times the pre-October 7 population. And U.S. officials insist that Israel does not have any military plans ready for Rafah, let alone any plans to deal with all of those civilians, as deputy State Department Spokesman Vedant Patel said yesterday.

Vedant Patel, Principal Deputy State Department Spokesperson:

We have yet to see any evidence of serious planning for such an operation. And to do — conduct such an operation right now with no planning and little thought in an area where there is sheltering of a million people would be a disaster.

Nick Schifrin:

You can actually see Patel referring to his notes. So they had planned to make that statement before the briefing.

And that's a shift for the administration. It does not usually warn Israel not to conduct an operation that it has not yet launched. And that's what we saw from multiple U.S. officials. Yesterday. We also heard President Biden last night — last night making his most pointed critique of how Israel has launched this war.

Joe Biden, President of the United States: The conduct of the response in the Gaza Strip has been over the top. Initially, the president of Mexico, El-Sisi, did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in.

I talked to him. I convinced him to open the gate. Innocent people, innocent women and children were also in badly need of help.

Nick Schifrin:

Part of that sound bite, of course, was President Biden mixing El-Sisi for AMLO, the president of Mexico, for the president of Egypt.

But the fact is that U.S. officials believe Netanyahu is serious about going into Rafah, and they really wanted to make the point that it was a bad idea. But they also make the point that Netanyahu behind the scenes is negotiating, is making progress for that pause in Gaza to release the hostages.

And so they say there is some bluster in what Netanyahu is doing, because he is trying to maintain his coalition that includes far right politicians who have threatened to leave the coalition, bring down the government if he presses pause on the war. So, the question, of course, Amna, that we have tonight, is, will Netanyahu try and achieve his military goals in the coming days or weeks, or will he embrace the possibility that this war could at least pause?

And, of course, that is what the U.S. wants to open up those larger negotiations across the region.

Amna Nawaz:

We will see where those negotiations lead.

Nick Schifrin with the very latest.

Thank you, Nick.

Nick Schifrin:

Thank you.