American officials said that the White House is pressing behind closed doors for a faster end to the extremely intense phase of the Israeli war on Gaza, while Israeli press sources said that US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan held talks with Israeli officials about starting negotiations to release detainees held by the Hamas movement.
A senior American official said that Sullivan discussed the military operation in Gaza and how to transform it from a high-intensity operation to a less intense operation, adding that the Israelis informed Sullivan of their intention to adopt a timetable.
The American official believed that the timetables for the Israeli military operation do not matter as much as the circumstances that will govern it, stressing that the next stage will include more precise operations based on intelligence information about how to target specific infrastructure, he said.
CBS News also quoted another American official as saying that Tel Aviv informed Washington of the completion of the current phase of intensive air strikes and a major ground operation within two or three weeks, and the American official said that this does not mean the end of combat operations.
The CBS News source spoke of a decrease in the intensity of aerial bombardment and a focus on non-random raids.
New stage
Sullivan said that the war in Gaza will move to a new phase that focuses on precisely targeting the leadership of the Hamas movement, and on operations supported by intelligence information.
Sullivan explained that he had held “valuable” discussions in Israel about moving to a less intense military operation, and pointed to the agreement between Washington and Tel Aviv that the fighting would take months, but according to different stages.
The American official added that Israel will continue to pursue the head of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Al-Sinwar, the leader of the movement’s military wing, Muhammad Al-Deif, and his deputy, Marwan Issa.
For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he informed Sullivan that the war would continue until what he described as complete victory was achieved.
While the American official stressed that the Israeli government announced that it “does not intend to occupy Gaza in the long term, and supervision of Gaza, management of Gaza, and Gaza’s security must return to the Palestinians.”
Detainees in Gaza
In a related context, Israeli media reported that Mossad chief David Barnea discussed yesterday with the US National Security Advisor the start of negotiations to release the hostages.
On the other hand, Hamas leader Osama Hamdan said that there was nothing left for Netanyahu and his war chiefs but to declare their failure to achieve any goal.
The Hamas leader stressed that there will be no negotiation regarding the prisoners until after a complete cessation of the aggression against the Gaza Strip.
