52m ago
Julian Borger
Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, has been restating the Biden administration line on the extension of the
Israel ground offensive to southern Gaza, as it is widely expected to do after the hostage ceasefire.
The US is insisting that the campaign in the south, where
Gaza residents were told by the Israeli government to take shelter, should look very different from in the north, where there were mass civilian casualties. At the time the administration did not directly criticise the Israeli forces for their conduct in the north, but in his CBS News Face the Nation interview, Sullivan said there were lessons to be learned.
“The United States is hoping to see – and frankly what I believe Israel is hoping to see – is the conditions being set whereby any military action only takes place after civilians have been accounted for and have the opportunity to be in safety, to have access to humanitarian assistance, and to be out of the way of any military operation that is conducted.
“That’s the conversation we’re having with the Israelis right now. It’s a constructive conversation and the details of it will remain behind closed doors but the basic notion is that continuing military operations should learn lessons from the north, to be applied in any further undertakings.”
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