US President Joe Biden’s administration has issued “special advice” to Israel to reconsider its plans to launch a major ground attack in the Gaza Strip and adopt a precise “eradication” operation using aircraft and special operations forces to carry out precise and targeted raids on highly valuable Hamas targets and infrastructures, according to the “Washington Post” newspaper.
The U.S. newspaper cited five American officials familiar with the discussions as saying that administration officials were concerned about the potential repercussions of a full ground attack and that they doubted it would achieve Israel’s stated goal of eliminating Hamas.
One of the officials told the newspaper that they are also concerned that it could hamper negotiations aimed at freeing nearly 200 hostages, at a time when diplomats believe they have made “significant” progress in recent days to free some, and it is possible that some Americans are among them.
The Biden administration is also concerned that a ground invasion could cause many casualties among Palestinian civilians and Israeli soldiers, which could lead to a significant escalation of hostilities in the region, officials said.
The newspaper’s sources say that American officials believe that a “wipe out” operation with aircraft and special forces to carry out targeted raids would be appropriate for hostage negotiations and might not hinder the delivery of humanitarian aid, but would also reduce civilian deaths and it would eliminate the chances of provoking widespread war in the region.
Following the Hamas attack, there was significant public pressure on Israeli officials to launch a major ground incursion into Gaza. But American officials have urged Israel to evaluate whether this would actually achieve the goal of eliminating Hamas.
Publicly, President Biden and his senior officials have indicated their support for a planned ground attack if Israel concludes it is the best move, but later added that they are asking “tough questions” about the idea.
The newspaper stressed that the “special message” of conducting targeted operations instead of a major ground invasion is considered an important change from the US administration’s public position, and a clear change from its position in the days immediately following the attack of Hamas.
The White House declined to comment on the administration’s push to conduct an “eradication” operation instead of a large-scale land invasion, efforts that were first reported by the Washington Post, as it described it, and officials ordered the newspaper to use Biden’s statements regarding Israel making its own military decisions.
A person close to the talks told the newspaper, who spoke on condition of anonymity, that there is a clear shift in the U.S. administration’s position from “We support you. We’ll do what you want,” now that “You really need to rethink your strategy.”
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari announced Friday evening that the army will “expand its ground operations” in the Gaza Strip, at a time when the besieged sector is under heavy Israeli shelling.
Hagari said the expansion of ground operations follows “a series of attacks (launched by the army) in recent days.”
On October 7, Hamas launched attacks on Israel, which saw hundreds of militants infiltrate Israeli cities and fire thousands of rockets, killing more than 1,400 people and kidnapping dozens, most of them civilians, including women and children, according to the Israeli authorities.
Israel responded to the attacks with intense bombing of Gaza, killing more than 7,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, including women and children, according to the latest toll from the Palestinian health authorities.