Amid massive civilian casualties in Gaza and mounting international and domestic pressure on the U.S., the Biden administration is ramping up efforts to persuade Israel to scale down its military operations in the Palestinian enclave.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan discussed the matter Thursday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his war Cabinet in Israel.
The meeting is the latest in a series of recent engagements aimed at pressuring Israel to shift from "high-intensity clearance operations" to a "more targeted, surgical, intelligence-driven" longer-term effort against high-value targets and specific military infrastructure, said a senior administration official briefing reporters Thursday evening.
The official, who spoke on condition of not being identified as is customary during background calls, denied media reports that the U.S. had set a timetable of a few weeks or year's end for Israel to wind down its campaign. He said the Israeli war Cabinet has briefed the U.S. on potential timeframes.
"The Israelis had ideas for the military campaign very early, which we found problematic," the official said, adding that President Joe Biden had conveyed those concerns during his visit to Israel in the early days of the war.
Even as the administration is calling for a more limited military campaign, the official underscored that Hamas leaders will not be given sanctuary. "It is Israel's right to go after the leaders that planned and executed the October 7 attacks," he said.
Hamas fighters stormed from the Gaza Strip into nearby Israeli towns on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostages. Gaza health officials say Israel's military response has displaced at least 2 million people and killed more than 18,000 in the bloodiest campaign of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Stability in the West Bank
Sullivan is set to travel Friday to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss stability in the West Bank where violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers has escalated since the October 7 massacre.
Biden and senior U.S. officials have warned repeatedly that Israel must act to stop them. The U.S. has sanctioned some of the perpetrators of violence.
Sullivan will also focus on the future of Gaza once the conflict ends. The administration wants the coastal strip to be governed by Palestinians and not be reoccupied by Israel.
"It is Palestinian land. It should be Palestinian-led," the official said.
One idea under discussion is deploying a PA-led security force to Gaza. The Biden administration believes such a force might "be able to provide some sort of a nucleus in many months that follow the overall military campaign."
It's unclear whether Israel would be receptive to the idea. Benny Gantz, a member of Israel's war Cabinet, said Thursday that Israel was determined to maintain "full security control" in Gaza.
Sullivan is also set to discuss the need for reform in the PA to empower it in the future governance of Gaza, the official said.
Since its establishment in 1993, and particularly since the Second Intifada in the early 2000s, the PA has been losing credibility among the Palestinian people, allowing Hamas to win the 2006 election and expel them from Gaza.
Polls show the majority of Palestinians believe that the PA is corrupt and want Abbas to go.
