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While supporting Israel in its battle with Hamas, the US government of Joe Biden wants Israel to cease its large-scale invasion of Gaza, which appears to be harming people in what the West refers to as “collective punishment.”
US authorities emphasized the importance of surgical, focused, and targeted attacks on Hamas while protecting people in the enclave.
The Biden administration has informed Israel that it wishes to terminate its large-scale ground campaign in Gaza and transition to a more targeted phase of its operation against Hamas.
According to local health professionals, the death toll in the Gaza Strip is approaching 20,000, with two-thirds of those killed being women and children.
According to the Israeli Defense Forces, over 1,200 Israelis were killed in the October 7 Hamas offensive.
During his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan did not provide a timetable for this new phase of the war, according to two sources with knowledge of the proceedings.
A senior administration source said Thursday on a conference call with reporters that Sullivan had “a heavy discussion” about civilian protection with Israeli officials.
According to National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, Sullivan discussed “the next phase of Israel’s military campaign, and he asked hard questions, as we have been doing, about what all of that could look like.” Sullivan briefed the press on Thursday at the White House.
US President Joe Biden told reporters at an unrelated event Thursday: “I want them to be focused on how to save civilian lives. Not stop going after Hamas — but be more careful.”
President Biden was asked whether he wanted Israel to scale back its assault on Gaza.
“Kirby said that Sullivan also discussed Israel’s efforts now undertaking to be more surgical and precise in their targeting and efforts that they are taking to help increase the flow of aid,” Biden said.
“There was a discussion in these meetings — and also in our prior meetings and in calls between the president and the prime minister — on kind of shifts and emphasis from … high intensity clearance operations, which are ongoing now, to ultimately lower-intensity focus on high-value targets, intelligence-driven raids and those sorts of more-narrow surgical military objectives,” the senior administration official said.
US officials understand that taking out Hamas commanders will take months, an endeavor that will continue even if the high-intensity phase of the war shifts to a more surgical one.
The dispute about the war’s speed comes after Biden warned earlier this week in a speech to campaign fundraisers that “indiscriminate bombing” was costing Israel global support.
Source:IANS
