Fall/Winter Check-in Challenge White House spokesman John. Kirby also said Thursday that U.S. adviser Jake Sullivan discussed the possibility of turning the Israeli offensive in Gaza into a "low-intensity operation" "in the near future" during his visit to Israel today.
Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli defense minister warned that the war against Hamas in Gaza would last "more than a few months," and the U.S. envoy arrived in Israel to express U.S. concern about the large number of civilians in the besieged Palestinian territories**.
According to multiple international ** analysis, the United States is losing patience with its ally Israel. U.S. Biden warned on Tuesday that Israel's "indiscriminate bombardment" of Gaza is losing international support, and White House spokesman has already said on Wednesday that "we are concerned about Israel's military offensive in Gaza and its impact on civilians, and we have expressed that concern."
On 7 October, Hamas launched a bloody attack in the Gaza Strip that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, the death toll in Gaza is now approaching 18,800, 70% of whom were women, children and adolescents killed by Israeli bombing.
The situation resurfaced on Thursday on Thursday after Israel imposed a total siege since October 9, resulting in severe shortages of supplies, and the fact that the devastated small territory has often lost all contact with the outside world due to the severance of ** and the internet.
Since Tuesday, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a non-binding resolution calling for a ceasefire, and since then, there has been a flurry of diplomatic moves.
The United States, a staunch supporter of Israel, has been opposed to an immediate ceasefire, arguing that it would give Hamas control of the territory, but in recent days the United States has repeatedly expressed that it is losing patience with Israel. U.S. Biden criticized the "indiscriminate bombardment" and said Western support for Israel could be "weakened."
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is expected to visit Israel soon, while France's head Colonna will visit Lebanon on Saturday and Israel on Sunday.
Israel launched a devastating bombing campaign on Gaza on October 7 following Hamas's bloody attack on Israel, and on October 27, Israel launched a ground offensive in Gaza. Initially concentrated in the north, it has since expanded to include the south, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians displaced by the war are concentrated.
According to the Israeli military, Hamas released 105 hostages during the seven-day truce that ended on December 1, but 135 of them remain in the hands of Hamas and its affiliates. The military announced on Thursday that 116 soldiers had been killed since the start of the ground offensive.
According to the United Nations, about 1.9 million Palestinians living in the Gaza corridor (85% of the total population) have been displaced, many of whom have been displaced multiple times since the war began.
The United Nations has repeatedly reiterated that humanitarian assistance is inadequate and refugee camps are overcrowded, which, in addition to hunger and lack of care, contribute to disease.
Aid could only enter Rafah via Egypt with Israeli authorization, but the amount of aid reaching Rafah was very limited, and aid to the rest of the area was cut off by the fighting.