According to media reports, Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has told his US counterpart Lloyd Austin that there is no date yet for a ground assault in the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
Gallant thus contradicted a statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli newspapers Haaretz, Times of Israel and the news portal Axios reported on Tuesday evening, citing sources.
On Monday, Netanyahu had publicly stated that the date for the planned offensive in the city of Rafah on the border with Egypt, which is currently overcrowded with hundreds of thousands of refugees, had been finalized.
Gallant, however, reportedly said in a telephone conversation with Austin that Israel was still finalizing plans for the evacuation of the civilian population there.
As its most important ally, the US has repeatedly warned Israel against a large-scale offensive against the Islamist organization Hamas in Rafah, where more than a million Palestinian civilians have sought shelter from the fighting.
A meeting with an Israeli delegation is planned for next week to discuss the US side's concerns about such a deployment, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Washington on Tuesday.
Netanyahu is under pressure from far-right partners in his coalition to invade Rafah.
Following the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Khan Younis in southern Gaza, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, on Monday: "If the prime minister decides to end the war without a broad assault on Rafah to decisively defeat Hamas, he will have no mandate to continue as prime minister."
In response, Netanyahu said in the evening that the date for an offensive had been set. On Tuesday, he went further and said, according to his office, that the Israeli army would destroy all Hamas battalions. This also applies to the city of Rafah.
"No power in the world will stop us," he said. There are "many forces trying to do this, but nothing will help," Netanyahu added.