Biden calls on Israel to “be more careful” in pursuing Hamas in Gaza.
President Joe Biden on Thursday called on Israel to “proceed more cautiously” in its pursuit of Hamas in Gaza and to focus on saving civilian lives. The comments come as Israel's defense minister predicts a protracted war and says it will take months to destroy Hamas. (Dec 14)
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan is scheduled to meet with Palestinian Authority leaders on Friday as part of a larger effort to “renew” and “revitalize” the governing body that President Joe Biden has said will chair Gaza should lead after Israel-Hamas war.
Sullivan met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials on Thursday to discuss the war's timeline and the conditions under which military operations in Gaza will end the heavy fighting that has sparked international outrage and left Israel and the U.S. amid global calls for action a ceasefire has isolated fire.
Earlier this week, Biden said that Israel is “beginning” to lose international support in its war against Hamas because of its “indiscriminate bombing” in the Gaza Strip. And on Thursday, the president said he wanted Israel to “focus on how to save civilian lives…not stop going after Hamas, but act more carefully.”
Sullivan did not disclose the timeline for when Israel plans to slow its intensive military operations in Gaza, which continued Friday amid a communications blackout that has cut the enclave off from the rest of the world for at least the fourth time since the war began. Sullivan said Israeli officials have expressed an intention to reduce the number of civilian casualties in Gaza.
“We want the results to match that,” Sullivan said in Jerusalem before heading to the West Bank to meet with Palestinian Authority leaders. He later added that Israeli officials “have clearly indicated that their goal is to distinguish between innocent Palestinians and Hamas as we move forward.”
According to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, more than 18,700 Palestinians have been killed since the war broke out over two months ago. More than 1,300 Israelis have been killed since Hamas launched its deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 240 people hostage, about half of whom remain in captivity remains.
Latest developments:
◾ Al Jazeera said on Friday that its Gaza bureau chief, Wael Dahdouh, and cameraman Samer Abudaqa were injured in a drone strike in the southern city of Khan Younis. Both were hit by shrapnel, Al Jazeera said. Dahdouh's wife, son, daughter and grandson were killed in an Israeli airstrike in October.
◾ Israeli forces have recovered the bodies of two of their soldiers who were taken hostage on October 7, according to a report Statement from the military on Friday.
◾ According to a CNN report citing Netanyahu's office, Israel believes that 20 of the 132 hostages in Gaza are dead.
Israel said on Friday that three hostages captured by Hamas in Gaza on October 7 were accidentally killed by the Israeli military after they were mistakenly perceived as threatening.
The three Israeli hostages were Yotam Haim, Samer Talalka and a third hostage whose family asked that his name not be revealed, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
“During the battle in Shejaiya, the IDF mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat and subsequently fired on them, killing the hostages,” the military said.
The Israeli military said the incident occurred in an active combat zone that has seen ongoing fighting in recent days. The IDF said officials learned from the incident and shared “lessons” with troops.
“The IDF expresses its deep remorse for the tragic incident and extends its deepest condolences to the families. Our national mission is to locate the missing and return all hostages home,” it said.
The Israeli government has agreed to open a border crossing into Gaza to allow aid deliveries to the besieged area. This would be the first time since October 7 that aid from Israel has been allowed to enter Gaza.
Netanyahu's office said on Friday that the country's security cabinet had approved the opening of the Karem Shalom border crossing in southern Gaza, and officials expect it to increase the amount of aid delivered to Gaza daily. Earlier this week, Israeli officials began inspecting aid trucks at the border crossing, but they have not yet allowed aid to enter Gaza directly.
The news is a departure from Israel's previous policy of banning the direct passage of aid to Gaza following the Hamas attack that sparked the war. Since the attack, aid trucks have only been allowed to enter Gaza from Egypt via the small Rafah border crossing.
International humanitarian organizations have sounded the alarm, saying Palestinians in Gaza are in desperate need of humanitarian aid, including food, medical supplies and fuel. Many groups have said the amount of aid coming in through the Rafah border crossing is not enough to meet urgent needs.
“We hope this new opening will ease congestion and help deliver life-saving assistance to those who urgently need it in Gaza,” Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser, said in response to the news.
On Friday, Sullivan said the threat from Hezbollah, which has been attacking Israeli military posts along the border with Lebanon since the start of the war, “can be dealt with through diplomacy” and “does not require the start of a new war.”
He reiterated the importance of “deterrence” to prevent the spread of conflict and said the U.S. “will not tolerate the kind of threats and terrorist activities that we have seen from Hezbollah and from the territory of Lebanon.”
In talks with Israeli leaders this week, Sullivan said he was advocating for a “negotiated outcome” in part to reassure citizens in northern Israel that they will not fall victim to an attack from across the Lebanese border.
More than 20,000 citizens living in towns and villages in northern Israel have been evacuated since the war began.
Israel's defense minister acknowledged Thursday that defeating Hamas will take time, a scarce commodity as international pressure to end the war continues to mount.
Yoav Gallant pointed out that Hamas has been building military infrastructure in Gaza for more than a decade, “and destroying it is not easy.” It will take time. … It will take more than several months, but we will win and destroy them.”
The U.N. General Assembly called for a ceasefire in an overwhelming if nonbinding vote this week, and even Israel's staunchest ally, the United States, is strongly signaling the need for less carnage in Gaza.
Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, said Thursday that in Gaza “half the population is starving.”
Skau said the flow of humanitarian aid has slowed since Israeli military operations expanded into the southern Gaza Strip, where the majority of civilians are seeking refuge.
“The grim reality is also that nine out of 10 people don't eat enough, don't eat every day and don't know where their next meal is coming from,” he said, adding that people were becoming increasingly desperate.
Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said on Thursday: “I saw with my own eyes that the people of Rafah started helping themselves and eating directly from the truck out of complete desperation. “They immediately got out of the truck.”
Lazzarini said more than a million people had sought refuge in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza near the Egyptian border. He called it the “epicenter of displacement.”
Contributors: John Bacon, Jorge L. Ortiz, Joey Garrison, USA TODAY; The Associated Press