Attacks on Gaza targeted and limited: America

Israeli police officers and security forces take some demonstrators into custody when they gather in front of the US Consulate General in West Jerusalem. Pic/Getty Images

A ruling by the top United Nations court ordering Israel to halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah has deepened Israel's disconnect with the United States over an operation, mounting international condemnation.

The decision on Friday by the International Court of Justice in The Hague added pressure to an increasingly isolated Israel, days after Norway, Ireland, and Spain said that they would recognise a Palestinian state, and the chief prosecutor of a separate international court sought arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Hamas leaders. A State official also confirmed that the operation has not yet moved to the depth of Rafah.

Administration officials appear determined to press on with military and political support for Israel, following the deadly Hamas attack it endured last October, while also pressuring its ally to avoid a full-scale military operation in densely populated Rafah. Earlier this month, the White House announced it was pausing a shipment of about 3,500 bombs, including massive 2,000-pound explosives that the Biden administration said were leading to civilian deaths.

The US officials, in pressuring Israel, had suggested that a major operation was a red line that would undermine stalled negotiations on a deal to return Israeli hostages taken by Hamas and would lead Biden to further dial back on the weaponry he would send Israel. But the tone at the White House seemed to take a notable shift this week after US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan returned from Israel, where he said that he has been briefed on "refinements" in the Israeli plan to root out Hamas in Rafah, and to Saudi Arabia.

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