The Palestinian president calls on the US to stop the offensive on Rafah. The White House says Israel agrees to listen to US views before acting

​Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that the US is the only country that can prevent Israel from attacking Rafah, the city in southern Gaza where more than a million people are taking refuge, the BBC reports. All the while, the White House said Israel agreed to listen to US concerns and thoughts before launching an invasion, according to Reuters.

Abbas, who heads the Palestinian Authority that governs parts of the West Bank, said any attack could cause Palestinians to flee Gaza. The Palestinian Authority is not present in Gaza, which has been ruled by Hamas since 2007.

On Saturday, Israel’s foreign minister said Israel could suspend the incursion if there was an agreement to release the hostages.

“Releasing the hostages is the top priority for us,” Israel Katz said.

Negotiations brokered by Egypt and Qatar have largely stalled because of gaps between Israeli and Hamas positions, but on Sunday Hamas said it would send representatives to Cairo to respond to the latest proposal.

Hamas wants a permanent end to the war and the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza, while Israel insists that Hamas be destroyed and all hostages released.

In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, Abbas called on the US to intervene.

“What happens in the next few days depends on what Israel does with the operation on Rafah, because all the Palestinians in Gaza are gathered there,” he said.

He added that only a “small blow” on the city of Rafah will force the Palestinian population to leave the Gaza Strip. “The greatest catastrophe in the history of the Palestinian people may then take place,” Abbas said.

Egypt and other Arab states have previously said an influx of Palestinian refugees fleeing the war would be unacceptable because it would amount to expelling Palestinians from their land.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to arrive in Riyadh on Sunday evening and hold talks with Mahmoud Abbas.

The US has repeatedly said it cannot support a large-scale Israeli military operation in Rafah without seeing a credible plan to keep civilians out of harm’s way.

The position of the United States

On Sunday, White House national security spokesman John Kirby told ABC that Israel had agreed to listen to US concerns and thoughts before entering Rafah.

“They assured us that they would not go into Rafah until we had an opportunity to really share our perspectives and concerns with them,” Kirby told the ABC.

Washington said it could not support a Rafah operation without a proper and credible humanitarian plan.

Israel approved the offensive plan

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said its chief Herzi Halevi had approved plans to continue the war, with Israeli media saying this related to the Rafah operation.

More than half of Gaza’s population is in Rafah and conditions in the overcrowded city are already dire, with displaced people telling the BBC they face shortages of food, water and medicine.

Satellite images showed new tent camps being built near the Gaza coast west of Rafah and the town of Khan Younis a little further north, which was left largely in ruins. Media reports say the tents are to house displaced people from Rafah.

The current war began when Hamas attacked Israeli communities near Gaza, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostages. Israel’s subsequent campaign of aerial bombardments and ground operations in Gaza killed 34,454 people, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Over the course of the six-month war, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) entered and took control of all of northern Gaza, including Gaza City and most of central and southern Gaza, including Khan Younis .

They have since withdrawn from almost all of those areas, but troops remain stationed on the Israeli-built road that separates northern and southern Gaza.