Israel and Hamas are currently exchanging batches of prisoners and hostages, but the U.S. has its eye on the next phase of the war.
“We want the objectives of this campaign, the elimination of Hamas as a governing, as a threatening force in Gaza and the threat to Israel, ended,” said a U.S. official on a press call.
“But how the campaign is conducted, particularly in the south, is exceedingly important.”
The Biden administration said it wants “areas of deconfliction” across southern Gaza that would include United Nations shelters and sites protected from the fighting.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to take the fight to Hamas wherever the Palestinian militant group is in retaliation for its Oct. 7 attack that killed 1,200 in southern Israel.
The concern, however, is that 1.7 million Palestinians are bunched down south, having already evacuated northern Gaza before Israeli troops moved into that half of the strip in late October.
Civilians packed down south may have only a small zone of territory to shelter in and there are fears of a worse fight in the area than there was up north, with most of Hamas intact from the fighting.
Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said ensuring the protection of civilians in Gaza “will continue to be a focus” for the U.S. in discussions with Israel.
“We certainly do not want to see innocent civilians being harmed or impacted to a greater extent than they have already,” he said.
Read the full report at TheHill.com.
