US says Israel’s Rafah assault hasn’t harmed as many civilians as previous ops did

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says Israel’s military operation in Rafah has not been as destructive and harmful to civilians as its operations in Gaza City and Khan Younis were, earlier in the war.

While acknowledging that the Gaza health ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, Miller points to a relatively smaller rise in the Hamas authorities’ death count during the Rafah operation.

He clarifies that no number of civilian deaths is acceptable and that the US assessments of the damage in Rafah are still coming in.

In April, US officials told The Times of Israel that the US and Egypt were in talks to build an underground wall along the Philadelphi Corridor between Egypt and Gaza that would thwart Hamas smuggling from the Sinai Peninsula. Miller is asked about reports from earlier today recirculating that idea, but declines to confirm them.

“We do believe that smuggling across the border from Egypt into Gaza is a very real problem that needs to be addressed. It’s one of the ways that Hamas was able to arm and fund itself, and that presented a legitimate security challenge to the government of Israel and also made it difficult to ever achieve peace for the Palestinian people,” Miller says. “We have been working on proposals with the governments of Egypt and Israel on how you can address that challenge.”