The White House on Tuesday defended US ally Israel's response to the airstrike that killed dozens of civilians in Gaza, even comparing the tragic mistake to US attacks in Gaza. Iraq And Afghanistan.
“We have conducted airstrikes in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, where we have tragically caused civilian casualties,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House.
'We did the same. We recognized it, we investigated it and we tried to learn from it to make changes,” he said, speaking about the “heartbreaking” images after a Israeli strike on Sunday in Gaza.
“We tried to learn from it – to make changes so that this series of mistakes wouldn't happen again, including, when we withdrew from Afghanistan, where we did… an airstrike that tragically killed a father and some of his father came to life. children. We pay for it. We learn from it. And we have procedures in place to prevent this from happening again. And that's what our expectations are going to be in this case,” Kirby said.
Kirby was referring to a U.S. drone strike in Kabul in 2021, in the final days of the decades-long U.S. involvement there.
“This speaks precisely to the challenge of military operations in a densely populated area, a challenge that I would like to add… that we have shared our perspective with the Israelis, based on our own lessons learned in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. This incident speaks to exactly that challenge,” he said.
The White House responded to “devastating images emerging from Rafah” after an Israeli attack that killed dozens of civilians
Kirby said the US ally has not crossed the red line and the US is not planning any policy changes as a result.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby referred to “devastating images emerging from Rafah last weekend” following an Israeli army attack that killed “dozens of innocent Palestinians – including children.” He called the images 'heartbreakingly so terrible'.
But Kirby told reporters that Israel had not violated President Joe Biden's 'red line' for blocking future offensive arms transfers because the country has not launched a large-scale ground invasion of the southern United States city, and the US does not appear likely to do so. Gaza.
That was in line with repeated U.S. warnings not to do so without presenting a plan that would protect civilians.
“Everything we can see tells us they are not going to do a major ground operation in population centers in central Rafah,” Kirby said. Most of the deaths in the Sunday strike took shelter in tents.
Kirby pushed back when asked how many “charred bodies” the president needed to see before considering a change — a reference to the angry tent that was shot up after the Israeli attack.
“We don't want another innocent life to be taken, and I take the question a little insultingly. No civilian casualties is the correct number of civilian casualties. And this is not something we have turned a blind eye to, nor is it something we have ignored or neglected to raise with our Israeli counterparts,” Kirby said.
“As a result of this strike on Sunday, I have no policy changes to speak to,” he said. 'It just happened. The Israelis are going to investigate. We are very interested in what they find in that research. And we'll see where it goes from there.”
He also pointed out the size of the munitions Israel says the IDF used, at a time when the government has stopped sending 2,000-pound bombs to Israel.
A '37 pound bomb is not a big bomb, and it is exactly the type of ammunition, if that is in fact what they used… If that is indeed the case that they used, that certainly indicates an attempt to be discreet and purposeful to be. and accurate,” he said.
National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said there is still “no major ground operation,” following repeated U.S. contact with Israel urging Israel to protect civilian lives.
Kirby noted the loss of life during the attack
“We understand that this attack killed two senior Hamas leaders directly responsible for the attacks,” Kirby said
His comments came on a day when the Pentagon said a $320 million pier that the US built to help deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza had to be towed away for repairs.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a “tragic accident” had occurred in carrying out the airstrike, adding to the mounting international criticism Israel has faced over its war with Hamaswith even his closest allies expressing outrage over the civilian deaths.
Biden and his top advisers have repeatedly warned the Israelis conducting large-scale operations in Rafah without a plan to ensure the safety of innocent civilians. But the government made clear it would not take any steps — at least not immediately — to curtail support for Israel as a result of the attack.
But other world leaders were harsher in their condemnation.
President Emmanuel Macron took to social media to say that 'these operations must stop.' The German Foreign Ministry called the images of the strike “unbearable” and said the “civilian population must finally be better protected.” And Qatar, a key mediator in efforts to broker a ceasefire and the release of Hamas hostages, said the attack in Rafah could “complicate” the talks.
The incident took place two days after International Court of Justice ordered Israel to end its military offensive in Rafah, where more than half of Gaza's 2.3 million residents had sought shelter before Israel's invasion earlier this month. Tens of thousands of people still remain in the area, while many others have fled.
Kirby said Biden “does not make decisions based on popularity or polling here or around the world,” but acknowledged that it was not in the U.S. interest or “the interest of our Israeli partner for them to become further isolated” on the world stage.
Calling the loss of life “heartbreaking” and “horrific,” he said, “we certainly condemn the loss of life here.” He added that the US was monitoring the results of an Israeli investigation into the attack, which suggested the civilian deaths resulted from a secondary explosion after a successful attack on two Hamas operatives.
“We understand that this attack killed two senior Hamas leaders directly responsible for the attacks,” Kirby said. “We have also said many times that Israel must take every precaution to do more to protect innocent lives.”
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters that Israel's weeks-long offensive in Rafah was still on a “very different” scale than the attacks Israeli forces carried out on other cities in Gaza earlier in the seven-month war against Hamas . The US had urged Israel not to repeat previous attacks in Rafah, given the vulnerable civilians huddled there.
Miller said he had no direct knowledge on Tuesday of reported accounts from witnesses on the ground that Israeli tanks had entered central Gaza, and noted that Israel had denied responsibility on Tuesday for another Israeli attack outside Rafah, which health officials in Gaza said that there are more than 20 people.
When asked if the strike would result in any policy changes in the US, Kirby said: “I don't have any policy changes to speak to.”
Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said she did not know whether it was a US-supplied weapon used in Sunday's deadly attack that killed dozens of civilians at a displaced persons camp. “I don't know what type of ammunition was used in that airstrike,” Singh said. “I have to refer you to the Israelis to talk about that.”
The Israelis have said they used small-bore precision munitions in the attack and have suggested a secondary explosion caused the civilian deaths. Singh said the US did not halt shipments to Israel in the aftermath of the attack. “Security aid continues to flow,” Singh said.
Still, Kirby said the incident reflected the challenge of conducting military operations in densely populated areas like Rafah, a concern Biden and his top advisers have repeatedly raised with the Israelis.
'There will be an investigation. They have already said it was a tragic mistake,” he added. 'They're investigating. In the past, they have been able to conduct their own investigations and hold people accountable. We'll see what they do here.'
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AP writers Tara Copp and Ellen Knickmeyer contributed.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, May 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)