AMN / WEB DESK
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday declared that the United States fiercely opposes the forced relocation of Gaza residents outside the enclave as Israel resumes its bombardment aimed at Hamas, or in the days and weeks after the war eventually ends.
In a statement after meeting with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt in Dubai, officials said Ms. Harris forcefully rejected the idea of moving Palestinians into Egypt or to refugee camps elsewhere, as she offered her strongest statement to date urging Israel to reduce the harm to civilians from its air and ground campaigns.
“The vice president reiterated that under no circumstances will the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank,” the statement from the White House said.
Ms. Harris also rejected an idea suggested recently by some Israeli officials that the borders of Gaza could shrink after the war is over to create a security “buffer zone” between the coastal enclave and Israel. The United States would not permit “the redrawing of the borders of Gaza,” the statement said.
Ms. Harris issued the stern statements after a daylong diplomatic blitz with the leaders of four Arab countries in Dubai, where she was attending the United Nations global climate summit known as COP28. Her trip had been announced as climate-related, but she spent far more time meeting and talking with the Arab leaders about the Israel-Hamas war.
In Dubai Ms. Harris met with Mr. el-Sisi, King Abdullah II of Jordan and President Mohammed bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates. She also spoke in a lengthy call with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the emir of Qatar.
Meanwhile the Israeli military bombarded southern Gaza on Saturday and ordered residents of several Palestinian border towns in the area to leave their homes, appearing to set the stage for a ground invasion in the south as hostilities resumed after the collapse of a weeklong truce with Hamas.
The Israeli demand for evacuations evoked similar orders the military gave before invading northern Gaza in late October, and it added to the fear and uncertainty hanging over Gaza’s 2.2 million people as a new phase appeared to begin in the nearly two-month war.