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During a press briefing at the State Department’s Foreign Press Center, White House National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby responded to a question from Anadolu about President Joe Biden’s Middle East legacy and whether his administration could have done more to save lives.
“As you heard the president say yesterday, the Palestinian people deserve peace, and they deserve to live in safety. They didn't start this war. Hamas started this war. And as you also heard the president say yesterday, they've gone through hell...So did Israelis on Oct. 7 go through hell," said Kirby.
Kirby also acknowledged the human cost of the war.
“The war has taken far too many innocent lives, the lives of people, families who had nothing to do with why (Hamas leader) Mr. (Yahya) Sinwar decided to violate the cease-fire that did exist on Oct. 6 and launched that terrible attack on the seventh of October. Now I'm not going to stand up here and tell you that the civilian casualty count is acceptable. It's not.
“All I can tell you is it’s not as if we were blind to the issue of civilian casualties. From very early on, we knew there was a risk of that. We said so and that we were going to work with the Israelis to do everything we could to minimize it,” he added, stressing that each loss of life is “extraordinarily impactful” on the Palestinian people.
Defending the administration’s actions, Kirby said that the US supported Israel’s right to self-defense while prioritizing the minimization of civilian harm and the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
“We have worked since the beginning, I mean the very beginning, with the Israelis to try to help limit those casualties. But each single one of them is a tragedy,” he said.
On the shortfall of humanitarian aid into Gaza, Kirby conceded that “more needed to be done to get more humanitarian assistance in, and we work very hard at that. That's why we're working on this deal right now. This deal right now won't just get the hostages home. It'll mean a surge in humanitarian assistance, and it'll mean a cease-fire of a period of time, which means that no bombs will be dropping and there shouldn't be any impact to civilian lives at that point.”
The Biden administration is nearing a breakthrough in securing a cease-fire and hostage exchange agreement.
Kirby expressed optimism, saying “we're still working through some of the gaps that still remain. We do believe they are closing. So we’re very hopeful that we can get this done before we leave office.”
"The structure of the deal as it is is basically a structure that we started putting on the table months and months ago, and it's just taken literally months and months of intense diplomacy," he said.
Kirby's remarks came as reports suggest that Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas are nearing the final stages a potential agreement that would bring a cease-fire and release Palestinian and Israeli hostages.
Israel and Hamas are set to implement a cease-fire and prisoner exchange deal in three stages over 40 to 42 days, with displaced Palestinians expected to return to northern Gaza after initial steps.
The breakthrough came after US envoy Steve Witkoff reportedly pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing criticism for delaying the deal while escalating military operations in northern Gaza.
Israel has continued its war on Gaza, which has killed more than 46,600 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
In November last year, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
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