US offers intelligence to Israel on top Hamas leaders, help with tent city if it doesn't invade Rafah: Report

As part of a strategy to prevent Israel from invading Rafah, the United States is offering intelligence to locate Hamas leaders, according to a report.

The Joe Biden administration of the US is also reportedly offering Israel to build ’tent cities’ to house the Palestinians evacuated from Rafah.

The US and much of the international community have urged Israel to not invade Rafah, the last Gazan town at the southern tip of the Palestinian enclave that has not seen major fighting. As many as 1.3-4 million Palestinians displaced from the Israel-Hamas War are said to have taken shelter in Rafah. The international community has warned that an invasion of Rafah will create a grave humanitarian crisis.

While Israel has not invaded Rafah, it has started conducting targeted operations in Rafah. It has said that around 300,000 Palestinians sheltering in the town have already left.

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What has US offered Israel in lieu of not invading Rafah?

The US has offered “sensitive intelligence” to Israel to help “pinpoint” the location of Hamas leaders and locate the terrorist group’s hidden tunnels in lieu of Israel not invading Rafah, according to The Washington Post.

The newspaper further reported that US officials have offered to help Israel build ’tent cities’ to house Palestinians evacuated from Gaza.

‘Tent city’ is a term for tent encampments for displaced people. Such encampment offer shelter and other necessities such as water, sanitation, and medical help. While there are humanitarian zones outside of Rafah, no tent cities to the satisfaction of the Biden administration have yet come up.

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The report said that the Biden administration has offered help with the construction of delivery systems for food, water, and medicine so that Palestinians leaving Rafah can have a “habitable place to live”. The officials are reported to have stressed that Palestinians to be evacuated from Gaza cannot be sent to regions of the strip already bombed out but need to be housed in “livable conditions and not simply be exposed to additional famine or disease”.

Moreover, the US officials have gone into great details about how such encampments would come up and, minute details, for example, how much water would be required to certain areas of encampment, have also been discussed.

Where is Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar?

Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas in Gaza, is not in Rafah, according to a report in The Times of Israel.

Sinwar is considered to be the architect of the October 7 attack on Israel. Finding him along with other leaders of Hamas is key element of one of the two aims of Israel’s war in Gaza: the destruction of Hamas.

Two officials told the paper that while they could not say with certainty where Sinwar was at the moment, they said there were Israeli assessments that said he was in underground tunnels somewhere below Khan Younis. A third official further confirmed to the paper that Sinwar was in Gaza and had not left the enclave.

Separately, The Post reported that the Biden administration has assessed that Sinwar would welcome a major Israeli invasion of Rafah that could lead to a protracted battle. As such a battle would further isolate Israel internationally, which is already facing isolation not just from its critics but also its allies and partners, Sinwar would welcome it, according to the report.