Israel‘s errant strikes on Monday that killed several aid workers validated the United States’s concerns over their intended operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, according to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
The defense secretary expressed his “outrage” over the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during a Wednesday phone call. He is the latest administration official who has expressed indignation over the set of strikes that Israeli leaders have taken responsibility for and acknowledged innocent people were killed.
Israel is still investigating the strike.
President Joe Biden, who has and continues to support Israel’s war against Hamas following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, said Monday’s strikes further demonstrate that Israel “has not done enough to protect aid workers” and has not “done enough to protect civilians.”
More than 32,000 people have been killed in the war, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry. That total includes both civilians and combatants.
U.S. officials, Austin included, have urged Israel for months to do more to prevent the loss of innocent lives.
Biden is expected to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, which will be their first call since the unintended strikes.
Israel’s military operations currently center on Rafah, a city along the Gaza-Egyptian border. They have already operated in northern and central Gaza, and Rafah is the last major population center they have yet to carry out full-scale operations.
More than half of Gaza’s population, more than a million people, have fled south to avoid the front lines of the conflict, and are now in Rafah. International leaders and organizations have issued grave warnings about the possibility that an Israeli ground invasion could incur significant numbers of civilian casualties.
The U.S. does not support Israel carrying out full-scale operations in Rafah and has spent weeks trying to convince the Israelis they can achieve their goals in Rafah without a ground invasion. Israeli leaders largely disagree, believing that full-scale operations are the only way for them to destroy the remaining Hamas battalions that are in Rafah.
“Secretary Austin stated that this tragedy reinforced the expressed concern over a potential Israeli military operation in Rafah, specifically focusing on the need to ensure the evacuation of Palestinian civilians and the flow of humanitarian aid,” a readout from the Pentagon about the Austin-Gallant call said.
Despite the errant airstrikes and Israel’s continued intent to carry out major operations in Rafah, the Biden administration will continue to support their overall efforts against Hamas.
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“Now, I want to make it clear that while we take issue with aspects of how operations are being conducted — particularly like saying, quite frankly, publicly, we don’t support a ground operation in Rafah — we also continue to believe and continue to act on the belief that Israel has a right to defend itself against a still-viable threat by Hamas,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday. “They still have every right and responsibility to their people to eliminate that threat after the 7th of October. And so, that support for Israel continues.”
Biden’s continued support for Israel has enraged Arab Americans and progressive members of his own party. Their unhappiness poses a threat to his reelection campaign.