Senior US and Israeli officials debate new Gaza war phase and humanitarian aid

Israel's Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer met with White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Tuesday reportedly to exchange views about a “different phase” of the ongoing war between Israel and the Hamas terror organization in Gaza.

American-born Dermer previously served as Israeli ambassador to the United States and is considered a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

High on the agenda for the high-level talks was "the transition to a different phase of the war to maximize focus on high-value Hamas targets," according to Israel's i24 news, which means shifting the focus from major offensive operations to pinpointed operations against senior Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

The overall purpose of such a shift in strategy is to reduce civilian casualties and collateral damage in the densely populated coastal enclave. However, this will be a challenging task as Hamas terrorists systematically embed themselves and their equipment in public areas such as hospitals, schools, and mosques.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Authority claims that some 20,000 Gazans have been killed during the ongoing war. However, there are no independent sources that can verify this number. Hamas also refuses to distinguish between civilian deaths and the targeted deaths of terrorists in Gaza. In addition, there are no official statistics on how many Gazan civilians have been killed as a result of misfired rocket launches by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Israeli military officials recently estimate that Israel has eliminated at least 8,000 terrorists in Gaza in addition to the 1,000 terrorists who were killed following the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre. Since Hamas operatives wear civilian clothes while fighting, the true number of killed terrorists may potentially be even higher.

Dermer and Sullivan reportedly also discussed ways to facilitate the inflow of international humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

The UN Security Council recently passed a resolution that calls for an immediate increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza's civilian population. However, the resolution refrained from explicitly calling for a ceasefire, due to Washington’s opposition that Hamas continues to pose a threat to the Jewish state’s civilian population.

The U.S. Biden administration did support the resolution, as it embraces the view that more humanitarian aid needs to reach the Gaza Strip. However, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield blasted other members of the Security Council for failing to clearly condemn the Hamas atrocities on Oct. 7, when terrorists invaded the Jewish state, massacred 1,200 Israelis and abducted about 240 Israeli and international hostages into Gaza.

“Why is it so hard to condemn Hamas for slaughtering young people at a concert, for butchering families alive, for the reports of widespread sexual violence? I will never understand why some council members have remained silent in the face of such evil,” Thomas-Greenfield stated.

Israel’s Deputy Ambassador to the UN Jonathan Miller recently emphasized that Israel has both a right and duty to defend its citizens against the Hamas threat.

“Israel not only has a right but an obligation to guarantee its security. This is why our mission to eliminate Hamas’s capabilities has not changed, and this is why security inspections of aid will not change. Israel will not permit the regrouping and rearming of Hamas, as the trustees of October 7 can never be allowed to repeat themselves,” Miller said.

Israel supports efforts to increase the inflow of aid to Gaza’s civilian population as long as it does not reach the terror organization Hamas.

President Isaac Herzog recently blasted the UN for failing to provide a sufficient amount of aid to Gaza.

“Unfortunately, due to the utter failure of the UN in its work with other partners in the region, they have been unable to bring in more than 125 trucks [of aid] a day,” Herzog said.

“Today it is possible to provide three times the amount of humanitarian aid to Gaza if the UN – instead of complaining all day – would do its job,” the Israeli president added.