Asked whether he was concerned that the rapidly rising civilian death toll in the Gaza Strip due to Israel’s war against Hamas would lead to Palestinian civilians turning to “terrorist activities”, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) US General Charles Brown responded: “Yes, very much so.”
“And I think that’s something we need to look at,” the top US Army official said in his first comments on the war in Gaza since taking over as commander of the Gaza Command, The Times of Israel.
Brown called Israel’s military goal of completely destroying Hamas “quite a massive undertaking,” while arguing that the Jewish State Defense Forces (IDF) is focused on eliminating the top leadership and warlords of the Palestinian movement as the first and foremost stage of its destruction.
Israel previously said that the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar is at the top of his hit list, amid the IDF’s slow but steady advance in its ground invasion through the northern part of the sector.
A US intelligence official told The New York Times (NYT) that Sinwar’s exact location is not known to the United States.
The Israeli army approached Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, which is located above an underground Hamas command center (bunker) where intelligence reports indicate that senior members of the movement, including Sinwar, are stationed, a US official told The Times of Israel. But an attack on this hospital could endanger the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of Palestinian civilians, the publication’s interlocutor warns.
Top US military officials are urging their Israeli counterparts to be “more calculated and precise” in their strikes on the Gaza Strip, a Washington source told the NYT, adding that the Americans urged the Israelis to use 250-pound (113 kg) satellite-guided bombs instead of 1,000-2,000. -pound ammunition.
However, Israel’s decision to effectively cut Gaza in half through its ground operations has earned praise from current and former American military commanders who spoke to The New York Times.
However, General Brown told reporters:
“I think the longer this goes on, the more difficult it might become.”
Operations like the one Israel is attempting tend to take longer than planned, he said.
“Every conflict I was involved in throughout my military career lasted a little longer than most people would have imagined. So we have to prepare for this,” he says.
According to the latest official data, the number of soldiers and officers killed during the IDF ground operation in Gaza, which began on October 27, has reached 34, and since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 – 352.
2023-11-10 05:46:00
#Israel #reached #number #hit #list #asked #strike #carefully #EADaily
