The Biden administration is desperately trying to convince Israel not to carry out a full-scale military operation in Rafah, the southern city in Gaza where more than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering from the front lines.

President Joe Biden spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, which was their first conversation in more than a month, and he agreed to send an interagency delegation to Washington, D.C., to meet with U.S. leaders to discuss “an alternative approach that would target key Hamas elements in Rafah and secure the Egypt-Gaza border without a major ground invasion,” Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday.