Israel has assured the United States of its plans “to transition from a higher intensity level of operations ... to something a bit lower-intensity” as its objectives shift in Gaza, the White House said Thursday, according to CNN.
“The Israelis say they recognize the need to transition to a different phase of fighting — I mean, in any military campaign, wherever you’re going to transition to a different set of objectives, you're going to achieve those different set of objectives through different tactics and operations, and that's just standard for the conduct of military operations,” White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.
Kirby declined to offer a timeline on when exactly Israel would transition to that new phase, adding the Israelis “will decide when (and) they will decide what lower intensity looks like and what that means.”
“We are not dictating terms and timelines to the Israelis," stressed Kirby, who went on to say that the US has "talked about the importance of moving to lower intensity operations, and obviously we don't want them to do it sooner than they think they can do it safely and effectively, but we do believe we believe that a transition, you know, in the near future is the best possible outcome."
Kirby pointed to a series of high-level trips to the region, noting Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and national security adviser Jake Sullivan have all traveled to Israel recently, where officials “talked to them about our lessons learned in doing those kinds of transitions … as well as asking them some tough questions.”
Recent reports have indicated that the Biden administration has given Israel until the end of the year to wrap up its war on Hamas.
However, White House national security aide Jon Finer later made clear that the United States has not given Israel a firm deadline to end major combat operations against Hamas in Gaza.
A similar comment was made by Austin, who said, “I'm not here to set a deadline on Israel's war with Hamas” during his meeting with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant this week.