Despite US Pressure, Israel Warns Of ‘Several More Months Of War’

THE US government wants the war between Israel and Hamas to end “as soon as possible”, a national security spokesman for the White House has said.

John Kirby was speaking to reporters in Washington DC about today’s visit to Tel Aviv by US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

He said Sullivan discussed Israel moving to “low-intensity operations” in Gaza “in the near future” in the talks.

“But I don’t want to put a timestamp on it,” Kirby added.

He also said the US was not “dictating terms to the Israelis of how long it has to take”.

“[The war] has to take as long as they feel they need to take to be able to eliminate this threat, but obviously we all want it to be over as soon as possible,” he said.

Israel’s defence minister told Sullivan the conflict would last “several months” more – though CBS News has cited two US officials as saying Israel has told the White House that the current phase of the offensive should be over in two to three weeks.

Meanwhile, President Biden’s recent comments about “indiscriminate bombing” in Gaza has heightened scrutiny on whether Israel is meeting conditions for the use of American weapons.

The administration’s arms transfer policy requires the State Department to determine that the weapons it sells are unlikely to be used for genocide, crimes against humanity, breaches of the Geneva conventions or serious violations of international law.

The spokesman Matthew Miller was pressed on this again today. He repeated that the department is monitoring and collecting information on the conflict, but has made no legal determination on whether Israel is complying with the laws of war.

He also stressed that the administration makes clear to Israelis they should be doing more to minimise civilian harm in Gaza, and has seen “progress in a number of areas”.