Harris celebrated the Hamas leader’s death as “justice,” but in March she warned the IDF not to enter Rafah.
Back in March, Vice President Kamala Harris warned Israel not to enter Rafah, the southern Gaza enclave where Hamas had holed up among the civilian population, saying in an interview that the U.S. would not rule out “consequences” if the Israeli military moved forward with a gathering invasion.
On Thursday, she praised Israel’s success in killing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as he hid out in that very city.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) killed Sinwar during a firefight in Rafah overnight Wednesday, only discovering in the morning after a positive DNA analysis that they had taken out the the architect of the Oct. 7 attack that killed 1,200 people a year ago.
Earlier this year, however, the Biden administration had strongly opposed the IDF conducting a full-scale military operation in Rafah, even calling such an invasion a “red line” in public and reportedly urging the Israelis not to go forward in private.
A White House official told Newsweek that the administration had only opposed a large-scale ground invasion.
“We opposed a large-scale invasion with heavy ground fighting in densely populated areas while there were so many civilians sheltering there given the high potential for civilian casualties”, the official said in an email.
