US President Joe Biden has warned Israel that its expected offensive in southern Gaza must avoid the kind of mass displacement of civilians seen during the military’s pummeling of the Palestinian territory’s north, US officials said.
Israel has said it will continue its war on Hamas after an ongoing temporary truce expires, but senior US administration officials told reporters the coming offensive must be “maximally deconflicted” and avoid hitting UN shelters, hospitals, power and water sites.
“You cannot have the sort of scale of displacement that took place in the north, replicated in the south,” one US official told journalists late Monday, speaking on condition that the briefing be reported only Tuesday.
“It’s very important that the conduct of the Israeli campaign when it moves to the south must be done in a way that is, to a maximum extent, not designed to produce significant further displacement of persons.”
The official added: “From the president down we have reinforced this in a very clear way for the government of Israel.”
Israel had been “receptive” to the warnings, the official said.
An estimated 1.7 million people in Gaza have been…
Read the full article here