White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby on Monday commented in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 News on the tensions between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Joe Biden. “We are still solidly behind our Israeli partners in their right and their responsibility to go after Hamas, which we recognize is a viable threat to the Israeli people, and so the support that we provide to Israel is going to continue,” said Kirby. “We obviously want to see a reduction in civilian casualties, we want to see more humanitarian assistance get in. We want there to be care and precision in the way these operations are being conducted,” he continued. “It’s actually good for close friends and allies to be able to have frank and candid conversations. And so that’s where things are.” He noted that Israel has made an effort to reduce the number of civilian casualties. “They’ve relied less on air power, structured their ground operations in such a way, to try to be more targeted and precise. I get this all the time that they’re ignoring us, that they’re not listening to us, and frankly, the facts just don’t bear that out.” “Netanyahu and Biden have known each other a long, long time. And they didn't always agree on everything. And I don't think anybody should expect that they're going to agree on everything going forward. But because they have the kind of relationship where they can be frank and honest,” Kirby clarified. On the ongoing negotiations for releasing the Israeli hostages, he said, “There’s still a lot of work to be done, but we believe we’ve made some progress here…We are cautiously optimistic.”
