Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to back down from an imminent siege of Rafah on Sunday, tossing aside President Joe Biden’s warning that such an assault would be crossing a “red line.” In response to the U.S. president’s interview with MSNBC on Saturday where Biden said that “30,000 more Palestinians dead” would be unacceptable, Netanyahu vowed to besiege Rafah and insisted on moving Israeli troops into the southern enclave, where more than 1 million displaced Palestinians are believed to be sheltering. “We’ll go there. We’re not going to leave,” Netanyahu told Axel Springer, the company behind Politico. He reiterated the right to self-defense by claiming that all of Israel’s actions were justified to prevent another Hamas attack. “You know, I have a red line. You know what the red line is, that October 7 doesn’t happen again. Never happens again,” Netanyahu said. He also claimed to have the private support of Arab leaders who wished to see Iran’s “axis of terror” toppled and refused a pause in fighting during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, which began Sunday.
