US official: IDF should only move into south Gaza once it has ensured civilians are safe
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says the Biden administration wants Israel to “learn the lessons” of its ground incursion in northern Gaza and not begin operating in southern Gaza until it can ensure that Palestinian civilians can avoid the bombing.
Speaking with CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Sullivan stresses that the US still supports Israel’s plans to continue prosecuting its war against Hamas once the temporary ceasefire concludes.
“Ultimately, Israel is going to want to continue to conduct military operations against Hamas, particularly [against] the leadership of Hamas [who] were the architects of this brutal, bloody massacre — the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” he says, pointing to a pledge by a senior Hamas official to continue perpetrating October 7-style massacres until Israel is defeated.
However, Sullivan reiterates that the US only approves the IDF expanding its operation to the south of Gaza “after civilians have been accounted for, have the opportunity to be in safety, have access to humanitarian assistance and to be out of the way of any military operation that is conducted.”
The stance is the latest indication that the US thinks Israel has not done enough to protect civilians, as the death toll climbs over 14,000 in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, though it cannot be verified. Moreover, the figure does not differentiate between civilians and terrorists and includes in its tally civilians killed by errant Palestinian rocket fire, but claims that the majority of those who have been killed are women and children.
Earlier this month, US President Joe Biden was asked about Israel’s operations at Gaza City’s Shifa hospital where Hamas has placed one of its command centers. Biden defended Israel’s conduct there, but revealed that he felt differently about some of the IDF’s earlier operations.
“This is a different story than I believe was occurring before, an indiscriminate bombing,” Biden said then.
