Kirby says US will speak with Israeli officials ‘hopefully this week’ about plans to go into southern Gaza

White House national security communications adviser John Kirby said Sunday that U.S. officials will speak with Israeli counterparts “hopefully this week” about Israel’s plans to go into southern Gaza.

Kirby said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that there will be a conversation with Israeli officials over the next few days about Israel’s plans to go into Rafah — a move that the Biden administration has cautioned Israel against taking. CBS’s Margaret Brennan asked Kirby if he had any further details of a meeting on the issue on Sunday.

“First of all, there’s been some staff technical level talks, even since you and I last spoke. We expect that larger conversation with our Israeli counterparts to happen in coming days, hopefully this week,” he said.

Kirby told Brennan last week that he expected to have an in-person meeting with Israeli officials about the expected invasion and emphasized that the U.S. does not support an invasion into Rafah — where more than a million people are seeking refuge away from the war.

“We had a virtual meeting last week, we expect to have an in person meeting with Israeli counterparts in the next week or so. We’re still narrowing down the schedule where we hope to be able to present in more detail. Our thinking some of our alternatives, the kinds of things that we want them to learn from our own experiences, about how to do operations of this regard,” Kirby said last week.

Israel has been signaling plans to invade the Gaza city of Rafah for weeks, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying last week that a date has been set for the military operation.

Rafah is home to the largest refugee camp for Palestinians fleeing the war. It is estimated that more than 1.4 million people are staying in Rafah amid the ongoing conflict.

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