US says latest Rafah deaths won't impact Israel policy, military aid

The Star

The Biden administration on Tuesday (May 28) said it was closely monitoring the probe into a deadly Israeli airstrike it called beyond tragic, but that the recent deaths in Rafah didn't constitute a major operation there that crosses red lines.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00 Good afternoon everybody.

00:03 Just want to make this very clear between what's happened on Sunday, what's happened

00:08 in terms of the ongoing ground operations since, there's nothing that you have seen

00:12 thus far that would prompt a U.S. withdrawal of more military assistance.

00:17 I believe that's what I've been saying here.

00:20 Everything we're seeing, and we can't see everything, but everything that we can see

00:25 tells us that they are not moving in in a major ground operation in population centers

00:31 in the center of Rafah.

00:34 And you've all seen the images, they're heartbreaking, they're horrific.

00:39 There should be no innocent life lost here as a result of this conflict.

00:44 Israel of course has a right to go after Hamas.

00:47 And we understand that this strike did kill two senior Hamas terrorists who are directly

00:54 responsible for attacks against the Israeli people.

00:59 But as we've also said many times, Israel must take every precaution possible to do

01:03 more to protect innocent life.

01:06 As soon as we saw these reports over the weekend about the strike, we reached out to the Israeli

01:11 Defense Forces at various levels to gather more information.

01:15 And we've been actively engaged with the IDF and with partners on the ground to learn more

01:19 about what happened.

01:21 I think this speaks very clearly to the challenge of military airstrikes in densely populated

01:26 areas of Gaza, including Rafah, because of the risk of civilian casualties, which of

01:32 course happened terribly in this case.

01:35 Has the President seen the images?

01:37 I don't know, I can't speak to what he's done.

01:39 He has absolutely been, he's been kept apprised throughout the weekend on this.

01:43 And this is not something that we've turned a blind eye to, nor has it been something

01:46 we've ignored or neglected to raise with our Israeli counterparts, including, Ed, this

01:51 weekend as a result of this particular strike.

01:54 Now, they're investigating it, so let's let them investigate it and see what they come

01:57 up with.

01:58 It just happened.

02:00 The Israelis are going to investigate it.

02:02 We're going to be taking great interest in what they find in that investigation, and

02:06 we'll see where it goes from there.

02:07 One of the things, and one of the things that we've talked about with the Israelis are,

02:11 about the manner in which some of these operations are being conducted, is the real danger that

02:19 Israel itself could become further isolated from the international community just by dint

02:25 of the manner in which they are conducting operations.

02:28 So this is of concern.

02:29 Thanks, everyone.

02:30 Thanks, Andrew.

02:31 Thanks, Andrew.

02:32 Thanks, everyone.

02:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Category

Transcript

Recommended