Biden asks Netanyahu to send team to Washington for talks on Rafah

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Monday that President Joe Biden has asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a telephone call to send a team of representatives from the military, intelligence services and humanitarian aid specialists to Washington in the coming days.

Biden wants to explain his government's reservations about the planned offensive in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip and discuss possible alternatives. Netanyahu agreed to send such a team.

"We have every expectation that they're not going to proceed with a major military operation in Rafah until we have that conversation," Sullivan said, referring to the Israelis. A meeting is planned for the end of this week or the beginning of next week, but a specific date has not yet been set.

Sullivan said a major Israeli offensive in Rafah would be a mistake, but that Hamas should not use the city or anywhere else as a safe haven.

The national security adviser rejected reports that the tone between Biden and Netanyahu was tense and that the phone call ended abruptly. 

The conversation was "business-like", he said. Meanwhile, David Barnea, the head of Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence service, met with mediators in Qatar, Israeli TV station N12 reported.

The Israeli security cabinet had authorised the departure of a delegation led by Barnea to the Gulf state late on Sunday evening.

Mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the United States are attempting to make progress in the recently stalled talks on a temporary ceasefire and an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas recently submitted a new proposal to the mediators. In it, Hamas no longer demands that Israel end the war before the first hostages are exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

According to the proposal, Hamas would only make a non-temporary cessation of hostilities by Israel a prerequisite for a second phase of hostage releases.

This means that Hamas has come closer to the contents of a multi-stage plan that the mediators had presented several weeks ago and which Israel had accepted.

Now that Hamas has made some progress, Israel is prepared to take part in the indirect mediation talks in Qatar for the first time in a fortnight. Israeli television reported that the talks are expected to last at least two weeks. (dpa)