WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden’s top national security official on Monday said the United States does not believe that genocide is taking place in Gaza but Israel must take more steps to protect civilians.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan insisted that the responsibility for peace lays with the Palestinian group Hamas, as ceasefire talks stalled and Israel continued targeting the southern city of Rafah.
Sullivan at a briefing said Israel can and must do more to ensure the protection and wellbeing of innocent civilians. “We do not believe what is happening in Gaza is a genocide,” he said.
He said Biden wanted to see the defeat of Hamas but realized that Palestinian civilians were in hell.
Sullivan said he was coming to the White House podium to explain the Biden administration’s stance on the conflict in Gaza, amid criticism from both sides of the US political spectrum.
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Biden has been under fire from Republicans for halting some arms shipments to press his demands that Israel holds a Rafah offensive, while there have been countrywide protests at the universities against his support for Israel.
Sullivan added the US president strongly believed that any operation in Rafah has to be connected to a strategic endgame.
He said this would avoid Israel getting stuck in a campaign that never ends, and ultimately saps Israel’s vitality and strength.
According to the health ministry in Gaza, since October 7 last year, Israel has launched a relentless bombardment campaign in a besieged enclave killing at least 35,091 Palestinian people, mostly women and children.
