RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The United States agrees with Israel that the fight against Hamas will take months, but officials are debating the timeline for scaling back from high-intensity fighting to more precise methods of targeting the militant group's leaders The U.S. envoy said on Friday amid growing American concerns about the rising death toll in Gaza, a top official said.
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan planned to speak with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas later in the day about the besieged enclave's post-war future. According to a senior US official, this could also include the return of Palestinian security forces who were driven out of their jobs in Gaza by Hamas during its takeover in 2007.
American and Israeli officials have been vague publicly about how Gaza will be managed if Israel achieves its goal of ending Hamas's control – and the idea, one of several being floated, appeared to be coming to fruition for the first time be that Washington outlined details of its security arrangements in the enclave.
Any role for Palestinian security forces in the Gaza Strip is bound to provoke fierce opposition from Israel, which wants to maintain an indefinite security presence there and says it will not allow the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of it, to gain a foothold after the war The Israeli-occupied West Bank is deeply unpopular among Palestinians.
In meetings with Israeli leaders on Thursday and Friday, Sullivan discussed a timetable for ending the intense fighting phase of the war.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Sullivan that it would take months to destroy Hamas, but did not say whether his estimate referred to the current phase of heavy airstrikes and ground fighting.
Sullivan said Friday: “There is no contradiction between saying that the fight will last months and saying that different phases will occur at different times during those months, including the transition from high-intensity operations to more targeted operations.”
He said he had discussed a schedule with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli war cabinet and that those discussions would continue during an upcoming visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
The offensive, sparked by the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, has leveled swathes of the northern Gaza Strip and forced 80% of Gaza's 2.3 million residents from their homes. Displaced people have squeezed into emergency shelters amid a worsening humanitarian crisis, especially in the south.
US President Joe Biden's administration has expressed concern over Israel's failure to reduce civilian casualties and its plans for the future of the Gaza Strip, but the White House continues to offer Israel full support with arms deliveries and diplomatic support.
“I want them to focus on how to save civilian lives,” Biden said Thursday when asked if he wants Israel to reduce its operations by the end of the month. “Don’t stop persecuting Hamas, just be more careful.”
A deadly Hamas ambush on Israeli troops in Gaza City this week showed the group's resilience and questioned whether Israel can defeat it without wiping out the entire territory.
More than 18,700 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air and ground strikes in the past 10 weeks in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry. Thousands more are missing and feared dead under the rubble.
The ministry does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths. The most recent count did not say how many women and minors there were, but in previous counts they consistently accounted for around two-thirds of the dead.
As of Friday morning, communications services, which telecommunications provider Paltel said were suspended on Thursday due to ongoing fighting, still appeared to be down across the Gaza Strip.
Israeli airstrikes and tank shelling continued overnight and into Friday, including in the southern city of Rafah, part of the shrinking areas of the tiny, densely populated Gaza Strip where Palestinian civilians had been ordered by Israel to evacuate. At least one person was killed, according to an Associated Press journalist who saw the body arrive at a local hospital.
Israelis continue to strongly support the war, saying it is necessary to prevent a repeat of October 7, when Palestinian militants attacked communities in southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 240 hostage. A total of 116 soldiers were killed in the ground offensive that began on October 27th.
The Israeli military confirmed on Friday the recovery of the bodies of three hostages. Two were soldiers, both 19 years old, and the third was a 28-year-old French-Israeli dual citizen who was kidnapped from a music festival.
More than 100 hostages have been released, most of them as part of a ceasefire last month in return for the release of 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Sullivan was scheduled to meet Friday with Abbas, who lost control of Gaza when Hamas drove out his security forces in 2007. The takeover came a year after Hamas defeated Abbas' Fatah party in parliamentary elections and rivals failed to form a unity government.
A senior U.S. official said Sullivan and others discussed the prospect of having those associated with the Palestinian Authority security forces before Hamas's takeover serve as the “core” of postwar peacekeeping in Gaza.
It's an idea that many have considered for creating security in Gaza, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with White House policy. He said such discussions would be held with Israel, the Palestinian Authority and regional partners.
The US has said it wants to see the West Bank and Gaza Strip eventually under a unified Palestinian government, as a precursor to Palestinian statehood – an idea strongly opposed by Netanyahu, who leads a right-wing government opposed to Palestinian statehood .
The Palestinian prime minister told The Associated Press that it is time for the United States to take a more decisive approach to Israel, particularly given Washington's calls for postwar negotiations for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Now that the United States has walked its talk, we want Washington to walk its talk,” Mohammed Shtayyeh said Thursday. “If the United States can’t deliver to Israel, who can?”
Under postwar scenarios, Washington has also called for a revival of the Palestinian Authority, without revealing whether such reforms would require personnel changes or general elections that were last held 17 years ago.
The 88-year-old Abbas is deeply unpopular. Nearly 90% of Palestinians want him to step down, according to a poll released Wednesday. Meanwhile, Palestinian support for Hamas has tripled in the West Bank, with a slight increase in Gaza, the survey found. Still, the majority of Palestinians do not support Hamas, the poll says.
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Jobain reported from Rafah, the Gaza Strip and Mroue from Beirut. Associated Press journalists Aamer Madhani in Washington, Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Elena Becatoros in Athens contributed.
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Complete AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.