US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Monday that President Joe Biden's administration does not view the killings of Palestinian Arabs in Gaza by Israel in its war with Hamas as genocide, Reuters reported.
Sullivan said the United States wants to see Hamas defeated, adding that Gazans caught in the middle of the war were in "hell" and that a major military operation by Israel in Rafah would be a mistake.
"We do not believe what is happening in Gaza is a genocide. We have been firmly on record rejecting that proposition," he said.
Biden has sought to influence Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's approach to the war, Sullivan said, but Israel is a sovereign, democratic nation that ultimately makes its own decisions.
"The Prime Minister doesn't have to answer to us. He's got to answer to the Israeli people," he told reporters.
Reiterating a comment made by Biden on Saturday, Sullivan said there could be a ceasefire in Gaza now if Hamas would release hostages. The world should be calling on Hamas to return to the negotiating table and accept a deal, Sullivan said.
The US national security adviser also said that Israel had still failed to provide the White House with a plan for moving nearly a million Gazans safely out of Rafah before any invasion of the city.
“We still believe it would be a mistake to launch a major military operation into the heart of Rafah that would put huge numbers of civilians at risk without a clear strategic gain,” he said. “The President was clear that he would not supply certain offensive weapons for such an operation, were it to occur.”
He insisted it “has not yet occurred,” despite heightened bombing around the city, and said the United States was “still working with Israel on a better way to ensure the defeat of Hamas everywhere in Gaza, including in Rafah.”
The US has continued to pressure Israel not to launch a major operation in the Gazan city of Rafah.
On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement that Blinken “reaffirmed the US opposition to a major military ground operation in Rafah, where over one million people have taken shelter.”
The conversation between Blinken and Gallant followed an earlier conversation between Sullivan and his Israeli counterpart Tzachi Hanegbi ahead of Israel’s Memorial Day.
The issue of Rafah came up in that conversation as well, with Sullivan reiterating “President Biden’s longstanding concerns over the potential for a major military ground operation into Rafah, where over one million people have taken shelter. He discussed alternative courses of action to ensure the defeat of Hamas everywhere in Gaza.”
Hanegbi, said the statement, “confirmed that Israel is taking US concerns into account. Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Hanegbi then reviewed the substantive discussions to date of the Strategic Consultative Group. They agreed to establish another in-person meeting soon.”