Sullivan: Biden will speak to PM today, stress need for distinguishing between terrorists and civilians

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan tells CNN that US President Joe Biden will speak again with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the coming hours “and is going to stress the need for the IDF to make every possible effort to distinguish between terrorists and Palestinian civilians during the ground operation in Gaza.”

“There have been deaths of thousands of Palestinian civilians in this conflict and that is an absolute tragedy,” Sullivan says, becoming the first US official to give a general figure of civilian deaths in Gaza

“Those people did not deserve to die. Those people deserve to live lives of peace and safety and dignity,” he adds.

Sullivan reiterates that Hamas’s use of human shields “creates an added burden for Israel but does not lessen Israel’s responsibility under international law to distinguish between terrorists and civilians and to protect the lives of innocent people who are the overwhelming majority of people in Gaza.”

Sullivan insists that the US has been asking Israel “hard questions” about its operations in Gaza, ones that it would be asking itself if it were carrying out such a counter-terror operation.

He says they’re also pushing Israel on “matching means with objectives” in the war, hinting at concern in Washington regarding Israel’s strategy for the ground operation.

Israel says it is committed to toppling Hamas, but some in the US administration are unconvinced that this is possible and believe that more surgical raids in Gaza would also be more conducive to securing the release of the hostages, the Washington Post reported on Friday.