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Dec. 15, 2023, 12:35 AM UTC / Updated Dec. 15, 2023, 11:54 AM UTC
By Gabe Gutierrez, Monica Alba, Caroline Kenny and Megan Lebowitz
The Biden administration has delivered a clear message to the Israeli government, urging the country to end its large-scale ground campaign in Gaza and move towards a more focused phase of its battle against Hamas, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the discussions told NBC News.
The officials emphasized that White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan did not provide a specific timetable for this new phase of the war during his meeting Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At Thursday’s White House press briefing, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Sullivan discussed “the next phase of Israel’s military campaign” and posed tough questions about what that might entail.
Kirby also mentioned that Sullivan “also discussed efforts Israel’s now undertaking to be more surgical and exact in their targeting and efforts that they are taking to help increase the flow of aid.”
The push comes as the death toll in the Gaza Strip approaches 20,000 — two-thirds of them women and children — according to local health officials. About 1,200 people in Israel were killed in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Sullivan had “a heavy discussion” about civilian protection with Israeli officials during his trip to the region, a senior administration official said Thursday on a call with reporters.
“There was a discussion in these meetings — and also in our prior meetings and in calls between the president and the prime minister — on kind of shifts and emphasis from … high intensity clearance operations, which are ongoing now, to ultimately lower-intensity focus on high-value targets, intelligence-driven raids and those sorts of more-narrow surgical military objectives,” the senior administration official said.
Israeli officials have briefed U.S. officials on their “thinking of potential time frames,” the official said.
Follow live updates on the Israel-Hamas war
A Palestinian man reacts to the destruction of homes in Rafah, after an Israeli bombardment in the southern Gaza Strip, on Friday.Said Khatib / AFP via Getty Images
“I think the Israelis had ideas for the military campaign very early which we found problematic, and I think the president’s visit out here very early in the crisis, discussed that in some detail,” the official said. “And the ground campaign was adjusted based upon some of our advice, some of our recommendations, with the recognition that this ultimately is not our war.”
When asked about the latest push from the Biden administration, an official in the prime minister’s office said, “Israel and the U.S. are fully aligned on the mission to destroy Hamas.”
NBC News has previously reported that U.S. officials have warned Israeli officials privately to show restraint and avoid mass civilian casualties.
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