The Pentagon said on Thursday that U.S. forces played no role in the Israeli ground operation in Rafah that killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, architect of the October 7 atrocities.
“This was an Israeli operation. There were no U.S. forces directly involved,” Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder said.
Ryder noted the United States has “helped contribute information and intelligence as it relates to hostage recovery and the tracking and locating of Hamas leaders who have been responsible for holding hostages,” but he indicated that was not the case with the operation that killed Sinwar.
“This was an Israeli operation. And I would refer you to them to talk about the details of how the operation went down,” he told reporters.
WATCH: IDF Drone Reveals Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar’s Last Moments
Israel Defense ForcesRyder’s statement directly contradicted President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s attempts to take partial credit for the elimination of Sinwar on Thursday.
Ryder took pains to cushion that blow by talking about how the United States has assisted Israeli counter-terrorism operations in the past, but he was clearly saying no American intelligence assets were involved in locating Sinwar. The Hamas leader was effectively a target of opportunity, killed after his entourage randomly encountered an Israeli patrol.
Biden’s statement on Sinwar’s death strongly implied U.S. forces helped to hunt him down on orders from the Biden White House:
Shortly after the October 7 massacres, I directed Special Operations personnel and our intelligence professionals to work side-by-side with their Israeli counterparts to help locate and track Sinwar and other Hamas leaders hiding in Gaza.
With our intelligence help, the IDF relentlessly pursued Hamas’s leaders, flushing them out of their hiding places and forcing them onto the run. There has rarely been a military campaign like this, with Hamas leaders living and moving through hundreds of miles of tunnels, organized in multiple stories underground, determined to protect themselves with no care for the civilians suffering above ground. Today, however, proves once again that no terrorists anywhere in the world can escape justice, no matter how long it takes.
Vice President Harris used the same technique as she tried to steal some credit for the elimination of the October 7 mastermind:
In the past year, American special operations and intelligence personnel have worked closely with their Israeli counterparts to locate and track Sinwar and other Hamas leaders, and I commend their work.
And I will say to any terrorist who kills Americans, threatens the American people, or threatens our troops or our interests, know this: We will always bring you to justice.
In truth, Biden and Harris were both massive obstacles to the operation that killed Sinwar. Both of them literally threatened the Israelis with reprisals if they sent ground forces into the city of Rafah, where Sinwar was hiding.
“We have been clear in multiple conversations and in every way that any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake,” Harris said in an ABC News interview in March.
“Let me tell you something: I have studied the maps. There’s nowhere for those folks to go,” she confidently declared.
Harris said the administration had been “very clear” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that invading Rafah should be off the table.
“Are you ruling out that there would be consequences from the United States?” asked ABC News senior correspondent Rachel Scott.
“I am ruling out nothing,” Harris answered.
In May, President Biden threatened to halt some American arms shipments to Israel if Netanyahu ordered the invasion of Rafah.
“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven’t gone in Rafah yet – if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem,” Biden rambled to Erin Burnett of CNN.
“We’re not walking away from Israel’s security. We’re walking away from Israel’s ability to wage war in those areas,” he said.
“I’ve made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet: They’re not going to get our support, if in fact they go on these population centers,” he said.
Biden administration sources said the president was serious about drawing a red line with his public threats to the Israelis, although they were averse to using the phrase “red line,” recalling former President Barack Obama’s blustery but impotent threats to draw a red line against the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
In the end, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ignored the threats from Biden and Harris and ordered the Rafah operation, which brought the Hamas leader to justice for his crimes on Thursday as he was attempting to flee into Egypt.
