Biden administration officials want Israel to end its large-scale ground and air campaign in the Gaza Strip within weeks and to transition to a more targeted phase in its war against Hamas, American officials said on Thursday.

Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, met Israeli leaders on Thursday about the direction of the war. Sullivan did not specify a timetable, but four US officials said Biden wants Israel to switch to more precise tactics in about three weeks. The officials asked for anonymity to discuss the President’s thinking.

American officials have made that timeline clear to their Israeli counterparts in recent days, the latest step in a gradual move by the administration to communicate that America’s patience with widespread civilian deaths is running out.

“I want them to be focused on how to save civilian lives — not stop going after Hamas, but be more careful,” Biden said on Thursday after a speech on prescription drug costs at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

The new phase that the Americans envision would involve smaller groups of elite forces that would move in and out of population centers in Gaza, carrying out more precise missions to find and kill Hamas leaders, rescue hostages and destroy tunnels, the officials said.

The moment appeared to be the most definitive effort yet by the US to restrain Israel
in its campaign against Hamas.

After wholeheartedly embracing Israel even as the Palestinian death toll mounted, the Biden administration has found itself under pressure at home and abroad to rein in the assault. The challenge has been preserving the president’s determination to let Israel eliminate Hamas while at the same time easing the chorus of critics outraged by the humanitarian crisis.

Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, said before meeting Sullivan on Thursday that his country’s campaign against Hamas would last “more than several months”.

New York Times News Service