National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said during a press briefing at the White House on Monday that the Biden administration rejects the idea that there is a genocide “happening in Gaza.”
While speaking to reporters during a press briefing, Sullivan outlined the Biden administration’s view regarding the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas and clarified that the United States supports Israel in defeating Hamas and believes Israel has a responsibility “to protect innocent civilians,” rejecting the idea that “what is happening in Gaza is a genocide.”
“I want to take a moment today to get back to basics and lay out the administration’s view,” Sullivan said:
Here is how we see it. One: this is a war between the State of Israel and the terrorist group Hamas, whose mission is to annihilate Israel and kill as many Jews as they can. The war began on October 7 when Hamas massacred 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostages. There was a ceasefire in place on October 6. [Yahya] Sinwar broke it. The president has made clear the United States wants to see Hamas defeated and justice delivered to Sinwar. There can be no equivocation on that.
Hamas launched an attack on Israel by land, sea, and air and murdered 1,200 people on October 7, 2023. The attack from Hamas left more than 250 people taken as hostages, some of whom have been released, while roughly 130 people are still being held by Hamas.
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Joel B. Pollak / Breitbart NewsIn response to Hamas’s attack, Israel launched a self-defense operation in the Hamas-controlled territory of Gaza and vowed to eliminate Hamas.
Sullivan outlined the second point: that innocent Palestinian civilians have been “caught in the middle of this war” and are currently living in hell.
“The death and trauma they’ve endured are unimaginable. Their pain and suffering are immense. No civilian should have to go through that,” Sullivan said of the Palestinian people. “This is on the president’s mind every day.”
Sullivan continued to explain:
Three: Israel has an unusual, even unprecedented burden in fighting this war because Hamas uses hospitals and schools and other civilian facilities for military purposes and has built a vast network of military tunnels under civilian areas. That puts innocent civilians in the crossfire. It does not lessen Israel’s responsibility to do all it can to protect innocent civilians.
Four: We believe Israel can and must do more to ensure the protection and well-being of innocent civilians. We do not believe what is happening in Gaza is a genocide. We have been firmly on record rejecting that proposition.
Sullivan’s remarks come as President Joe Biden has faced immense criticism from Democrat voters and people within the Democrat Party regarding his stance on the Israel and Hamas conflict.
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Joel PollakA Gallup poll from March found that only 47 percent of Democrats approve of Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, a 13-point decrease from October.
Biden, who has claimed that his support for Israel is “ironclad,” recently stated during an interview with CNN that he was going to withhold weapons and artillery from Israel if it invaded Rafah, Hamas’s last stronghold.
