The United States Department of State’s spokesman Matthew Miller said on Monday that Washington was not briefed about Israel’s plan to launch a ground operation in the Gazan city of Rafah and voiced his country’s stance against it. “We have made clear to Israel that we think a full-scale military invasion of Rafah would have an enormously harmful effect on those civilians and that it would ultimately hurt Israel’s security,” Miller said at a press conference. “We have made clear to them that we think that there is a better way to achieve what is a legitimate goal, which is to degrade and dismantle and defeat the Hamas battalions that still remain in Rafah.” Miller’s comments came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a date for the ground operation in Rafah has been determined.