Washington, DC [US], October 27 : Israel has a right and responsibility to go after Hamas after what happened on October 7, White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, John Kirby said on Thursday (local time).
Addressing a press briefing, Kirby said US President Joe Biden on Wednesday stressed the need to be careful while targeting Hamas leaders in a way that minimizes risk to civilians and collateral damage.
Kirby's remarks come amid Israel's ongoing counter-offensive against Hamas after the latter launched coordinated attacks in southern Israel on October 7.
On claims that Hamas using Palestinians as human shields and reports that Israel was targeting places where they know that civilians will likely be killed, Kirby said, "I will let the Israeli defence forces speak to their operations and their targeting procedures were not involved in that. They have a right and a responsibility to go after Hamas after what happened on October 7th, and we've said, as I just mentioned to Peter, we've obviously had conversations with them about and the president said yesterday the need to be careful about causing civilian casualties and to be targeting Hamas leaders in a way that minimizes risk to civilians and to collateral damage.
He added that President Joe Biden has never stopped affirming the need for a two-state solution since assuming office. Calling it a lofty goal, he noted that the US has been working hard on that.
Kirby said that the US has not stopped working towards that goal.
In response to a question about Biden's push for a humanitarian pause, he said, "The president has never backed away or never stopped affirming the need for a two-state solution since coming into office. We've been working on that very hard and I know it's a lofty goal and it's taking a lot of people a long time try to get there and we haven't gotten there. But he's not stopped working towards that goal. And he still believes, as he said yesterday, that when this conflict is over, that still has to be the goal."
On US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's remarks that there should be consideration made right now for humanitarian pauses, Kirby said, "We're driving to a state for Palestinians, that they can live in peace and security and justice. That is a strategic, long-term goal in a tactical sense. As Secretary Blinked said, we do think that there should be consideration made right now for humanitarian pauses. These are localized, temporary, specific pauses on the battlefield so that humanitarian assistance can get into people that need it, or the people can get out of that area in relative safety. That's what a humanitarian pause is. We think it's an idea worth exploring."
Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said "humanitarian pauses" in the Gaza war must be considered in order to protect Palestinian civilians, The Times of Israel reported.
Blinken made the remarks in his address to a ministerial gathering of the UN Security Council on the Israel-Gaza crisis.
He called out the international community for failing to explicitly condemn the October 7 Hamas onslaught.
Bliken in his conversations with world leaders since the assault, stressed that there has been agreement that countries have a right and obligation to respond to terror attacks against their civilians but indicated that not all of them have acknowledged this publicly.
"It must be asked, Where's the outrage? Where's the revulsion? Where's the rejection? Where's the explicit condemnation of these horrors?" Blinken asked.
He called on the international community to do everything in their power to secure the release of more than 220 hostages in Gaza.
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