US insists Biden's Rafah red line won't kneecap Israel hostage leverage

President Joe Biden’s threat to withhold military assistance for a major operation in Rafah should not undermine Israel‘s leverage in hostage negotiations with Hamas, U.S. officials insist.

“So it is just not our assessment — based on actually being in the middle of these talks and seeing how it’s happening, and what Hamas is actually demanding and what their incentive structure actually is,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said during a Thursday press briefing. “That’s just not how we see it.”