Austin said the U.S. had learned hard lessons from the killing and displacement of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan and recognized that waging a war in a dense urban center placed a significant burden on a democratic nation trying to follow the laws of war .
“The lesson is not that you can win urban warfare by protecting civilians,” said Austin, who commanded troops in the Middle East. “The lesson is that you can only win in urban war by protecting civilians.”
Israel has repeatedly warned people in Gaza to move away from sites of active fighting and dropped leaflets urging civilians to move south, away from some of the fiercest early fighting. Hamas killed 1,200 Israeli civilians on October 7 in a cross-border attack that included the killing and kidnapping of civilians.
Israel’s renewed bombing campaign has begun targeting areas in southern Gaza, and Israel has sought to keep Gazans out of some areas since Friday. Refugees from the northern Gaza Strip are increasingly being asked to move to smaller areas, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis across the Gaza Strip.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Israel and the United Arab Emirates late last week and on Friday blamed Hamas for the failure of the temporary ceasefire. It is “important to understand why the pause ended: it ended because of Hamas. Hamas did not live up to its commitments.”
Hamas fired rockets into Israel on Friday before the end of the ceasefire and failed to release the promised Israeli hostages.
On Saturday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that after releasing over 80 hostages, Hamas had violated the agreed framework by refusing to release 17 more women and children.
“Due to Hamas’ decision not to fulfill the agreements and in accordance with the War Cabinet’s decision, I ordered the IDF to resume fire yesterday morning,” he said.