The White House claims that Biden’s “red line” is not crossed by Israel’s ground offensive and Rafah attack.

The United States said on Tuesday that Israel’s operations in Rafah so far do not constitute a “major ground operation” that would defy President Joe Biden’s warnings.

Days after an attack caused a massive fire that claimed the lives of several Palestinians, Israeli troops advanced farther into Rafah attack, but the White House insisted that its partner had not breached the “red line” set by the Biden administration.

Tuesday saw the first sightings of Israeli tanks in downtown Rafah, as international outcry over the fatalities in a packed tent camp for internally displaced residents grew, and as U.S. humanitarian delivery to Gaza by sea were halted due to damage to its makeshift port.

Additionally, the nation’s national security advisor said on Wednesday that he anticipated the conflict to last until the end of the year.

However, John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said reporters at a briefing that Israel’s operations in the southern Gaza Strip, from which almost a million Palestinians have fled in recent weeks, were not being ignored by the US.

The Biden administration, he claimed, did not think that Israel’s Rafah attack operations so far constituted a “major ground operation” that would defy President Joe Biden’s admonitions and lead to a shift in U.S. policy, which would include a threatened stop to arms supplies.

He said, “You know, thousands and thousands of soldiers moving in a maneuvered, concentrated, coordinated way against a variety of targets on the ground is what you would call a major ground operation.”

Similarly, a U.S. source told NBC News that while the country saw the death attack as a “horrific incident,” it seemed more like an airstrike gone “horribly wrong” and wasn’t indicative of Israel “smashing into Rafah.”

“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah— they haven’t gone in Rafah yet— if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities — that deal with that problem,” Biden said to CNN earlier this month.

When NBC News’ Gabe Gutierrez questioned Kirby about how Israeli officials had insisted that their tanks were traveling “not in the town proper” and along the Philadelphi Corridor, a vital strategic strip of land that runs along the Egypt-Gaza border, she replied that the tanks’ appearance in central Gaza did not represent a full-scale ground operation.

Kirby said, “That’s what the Israelis have said.” “We’re proceeding based on the information provided to us by the Israelis, their public statements, and our best judgment.”

Shortly after an Israeli bombardment ignited a fire that destroyed a tent camp in Rafah’s Tal al-Sultan area, Kirby made remarks that shocked the local health professionals and resulted in the deaths of at least forty-five persons, including children.

The Biden administration, according to veteran foreign service officer and U.S. diplomat Hala Rharrit, is currently attempting to “wiggle their way out of this latest shift” on what defines a “red line.” Rharrit resigned from the State Department last month in protest of Washington’s stance on Israel’s war in Gaza.

She said in a phone interview with NBC News on Wednesday, “The president said population centers were a’red line’ to avoid mass civilian casualties.” “Are we really trying to mince words, whether they’re coming in by tanks or it’s happening via bombs coming from the air?”

After Israel was ordered to cease its onslaught in Rafah by the highest court of the United Nations, the attack on the tent camp has increased the amount of pressure coming from across the world. According to The Associated Press, the U.N. Security Council may vote as early as Wednesday on a draft resolution that Algeria submitted, which would require a cease-fire in Gaza and force Israel to immediately end its attack.

An Israeli official informed NBC News that Israel sent a fresh cease-fire proposal to mediators in Qatar, Egypt, and the United States on Monday. As required by Hamas, the plan called for a “sustainable calm,” but it did not call for an end to the fighting.

Leading Hamas leader Basem Naim said to NBC News on Tuesday that Hamas has not received a proposal from the mediators.

Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said at a briefing on Tuesday that Israel was still looking into the Rafah strike, including the source of the fire that he claimed “resulted in this tragic loss of life.”

He said that two top Hamas terrorists were the target of two 17 kg (37.5 lb) missiles launched by the IDF; nevertheless, he claimed that a fire was started accidentally and that it was “unexpected and unintended.”

He raised the likelihood that the fire was started by weapons kept in the targeted location, although he called that theory “assumption” at this stage. Both an American and an Israeli official reportedly told NBC News that it’s believed the fire was started by a gasoline tank that was damaged.

The strike’s photos have increased pressure on the US to take action.

Kirby responded angrily, “We don’t want to see a single more innocent life taken,” when asked how many “charred corpses” Biden wanted to see before altering strategy during Tuesday’s White House briefing.

The Gaza Health Ministry reports that over 36,000 Palestinians have died as a result of the IDF’s months-long ground war in Gaza.

Israel began the assault in response to terror acts carried out by Hamas on October 7, during which, according to Israeli sources, around 1,200 people were murdered and 250 more were held prisoner. At least one-third of the estimated 125 individuals still detained in Gaza are thought to be dead.

Tzachi Hanegbi, the national security adviser, stated on Israeli radio on Wednesday that “we still expect another 7 months of fighting this year to deepen the achievement and accomplish what we define as the destruction of Hamas’s governmental and military capabilities, without setting a stopwatch for ourselves.”

The usage of the term “red line” by former President Barack Obama in August 2012 to warn against the deployment of chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war is reminiscent of Biden’s warning about the United States.