We’re not here to tell anybody, ‘You must do X, you must do Y,'”‘ Mr. Sullivan said on Friday, as he downplayed differences between Israel and the United States. The President’s national security adviser was the latest member of the Biden administration to visit Israel to discuss the ongoing war in Gaza. During his visit, the Israeli military reported that its soldiers had accidentally killed three Israeli hostages in Gaza. The military stated that the soldiers had mistakenly identified the hostages as a threat and fired at them.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incident as “an unbearable tragedy” and praised the “brave warriors who are devoted to the sacred mission of returning our hostages, even at the cost of their lives.” On Friday, the Israeli military also reported that it had retrieved the bodies of two soldiers and an event planner who were kidnapped on October 7 and held captive in Gaza.
Following the incident, the Biden administration expressed its desire for Israel to end its large-scale ground and air campaign in Gaza within weeks and transition to more targeted operations against Hamas. They also discussed revamping the Palestinian government, with the hope that it would play a role in Gaza after Hamas’s removal. The Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, called for an immediate halt to Israel’s campaign in Gaza and stated that there was no alternative to a two-state solution in the conflict.
Mr. Sullivan also announced that Israel would open its border at the Kerem Shalom crossing for aid shipments directly into Gaza. United Nations officials have raised concerns about the situation in Gaza, describing it as “not really a habitable place anymore.” Since the beginning of the war, UN facilities in Gaza have been hit “directly or indirectly” by munitions 150 times, and 135 UN staff members have been killed.
The ongoing war has affected shipping in the Red Sea, with several companies redirecting container shipments through the region and the United States military ordering the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier to remain in the Mediterranean Sea for several more weeks.