[Cheonji Daily News Washington=Reporter Eloise Lee], February 1 —
After months of rising concerns over civilian Palestinian deaths in Gaza, the U.S. says there has been a shift in Israel’s military offensive this week.
“We are starting to see the Israelis kind of shift their stance and change their approach,” said Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin from the Pentagon on Thursday.
Austin initially called the new approach more “controlled” but rephrased saying Israel is now more “focused” on a “discreet set of objectives” — as opposed to the heavy bombardment of Gaza seen in prior weeks.
Austin said that the U.S. had spoken to Israel about altering their methods in Gaza weeks ago and is now seeing the difference. The Department of Defense said in a statement that Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, over the phone on Thursday and the two leaders discussed the shift to low-intensity operations.
“But I will continue to emphasize — and I know Secretary Blinken and President Biden will continue to emphasize —the importance of addressing the issue of the Palestinian people,” Secretary Austin said at a press conference with regards to protecting civilian lives. Austin told reporters that he speaks to Israeli Defense Minister Gallant about that concern every week.
Earlier in January, the State Department acknowledged that Israel’s intention to lesson civilian casualties throughout the war with Hamas “does not match” with the reality of many thousands of Palestinian deaths in Gaza.
Press Secretary for the State Department Matthew Miller said on January 4: “We have seen them take additional measures to deconflict sites, to make sure that civilian sites aren’t targeted, to do more to allow Palestinians to move to safer areas inside Gaza. But the results continue to not match where the Israeli intentions are, and that’s certainly something that we will talk about.”
Miller had said that there were steps that the U.S. thinks should be taken to further increase protections for civilians.