Joe Biden announced on Monday that a deal to release hostages held in Gaza is being negotiated, accompanied by a pause of “at least six weeks” in hostilities between Israel and Hamas, AFP reported.

The American president, repeating the warning made by his administration several times, also indicated that Israel “must protect” Palestinian civilians in Rafah in the event of an Israeli attack on this city in the south of the enclave.

King Abdullah II of Jordan said during a joint speech with Joe Biden at the White House on Monday that there “must be an immediate and lasting ceasefire” in Gaza.

“We cannot afford an Israeli attack on Rafah. It would undoubtedly cause another humanitarian catastrophe,” the sovereign said, adding that “the situation was already intolerable for more than a million people who were expelled to (this city in the south of the Sector Gaza) since the beginning of the war.

The United States remains opposed to Israel’s large-scale military operation in Rafah in the absence of measures to protect civilians in the Palestinian city on the border with Egypt, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Monday.

“Without a credible plan for that, which they (Israel) are able to implement, we do not support a large-scale military operation” in Rafah, he told reporters.

“We believe that the benefits of a pause and deal on the hostages would be enormous, first of all, obviously, for the hostages who would be released, but also for the humanitarian operation in Gaza, and for our ability to start looking for a real, viable and sustainable solution of this conflict,” he also stated.