WASHINGTON: The United States has cautioned Israel against reoccupying Gaza after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that Israel could be there “for an indefinite period” after the conflict, according to APP.
“We’re having active discussions with our Israeli counterparts about what post-conflict Gaza looks like,” White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday. “The president maintains his position that reoccupation by Israeli forces is not the right thing to do.”
He added that, “Israel and the United States are friends and we do not have to agree on every single word,” and that, “Netanyahu and Biden are not always exactly in the same place on every issue.”
Netanyahu told ABC News that Gaza should be governed by “those who don’t want to continue the way of Hamas,” without elaborating.
“I think Israel will, for an indefinite period, have the overall security responsibility because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have it. When we don’t have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn’t imagine,” Netanyahu insisted.
During the news briefing, when asked if the administration still is not drawing any “red lines” for Israel as the death toll keeps going up in Gaza, Kirby said, “That is still the case”, and added that “it is also true that airstrikes continue and it is also true that civilians keep dying from these air strikes.”
The military onslaught by Israel comes as the United States scrambles to arrange a humanitarian pause for deliveries of fuel and relief aid to Gaza civilians. However, according to the reports, the United States has also armed Israel with massive military aid as it continues its air strikes on the Palestinian state.
In his previous briefing, Kirby also said that Washington supports Israel’s right to defend itself after Hamas attacks in southern Israel on October 7. “We’re not drawing red lines for Israel,” the national security spokesperson said while adding that the country has not shied away from expressing concerns over the civilian casualties.
“Since the very beginning, we have had and will continue to have conversations with them about the manner in which they’re doing this. And we have not been shy about expressing our concerns over civilian casualties, collateral damage, and the approach that they might choose to take. That’s what friends can do, and we’re friends,” Kirby said.
A month of relentless bombardment in Gaza has killed more than 10,300 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. More than 2,300 are believed buried from strikes that reduced entire city blocks to rubble
Reporters also asked Kirby whether the US had raised the prospect of suspending or reducing its aid to Israel given the rising casualties. “We’re going to make sure they continue to have what they need,” was the spokesperson’s answer.
The US plans $320-mln transfer of precision bombs to Israel amid the continuing genocide in Gaza.
The United States, Israel’s biggest and oldest ally, has provided the regime with thousands of arms consignments since the initiation of the war.
The post US cautions Israel against reoccupying besieged Gaza first appeared on VOSA.