The head of US diplomacy once again warned Israel’s defense minister against the dangers of a large-scale ground offensive in Rafah, again expressing US opposition to its conduct.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken “recalled US support for the defeat of Hamas, including in Rafah, but reiterated his opposition to a large-scale ground operation in Rafah,” Matthew Miller said in a press release about his meeting with Yoav Galland , State Department spokesman.

Mr. Blinken “underlined that there are alternatives to a large-scale ground invasion that would allow for both better guarantees for Israel’s security and to protect Palestinian civilians,” according to the text.

The meeting of Mr. Blinken and Galland took place yesterday in Washington after Israel canceled the visit of its high-ranking delegation to the American capital.

The cancellation was decided in response to the US abstention during a vote earlier yesterday on a draft UN Security Council resolution that specifically favors declaring an “immediate ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip. Washington has vetoed it three times since October 7 to prevent such decisions from being approved.

“I’m sure we will find other ways to communicate our concerns” about this operation, which poses “enormous” risks to civilians, Mr. Miller said earlier yesterday to accredited reporters at the State Department.

According to the spokesman, the Israeli government has not presented a “credible” plan for the rapid evacuation of nearly 1.5 million people from Rafah, the vast majority displaced by shelling in the northern Gaza Strip.

Such an operation would make Israel “less safe” and “damage its standing in the world”, the US State Department spokesman insisted, as the US comes under pressure to scale back its military and political support for Israel. government.