The Israeli military has killed "many, many thousands" of civilians in Gaza over the first month of their military campaign in the enclave, according to the U.S. government.
The comment, which came from National Security Council coordinator John Kirby on Monday, occurred hours after the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry said the death toll had surpassed 10,000, with more than 25,000 people wounded. The Biden administration has previously cast doubt on the ministry's trustworthiness due to Hamas's control of it, but U.S. officials have hesitated to provide estimates of the death toll themselves.
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"You've seen some indications there are efforts being applied in certain scenarios to try to minimize, but I don't want to overstate that. There have obviously been, to your point, many, many thousands of innocent people killed, and each one's a tragedy. We don't want to see any innocent life taken as a result of this war," Kirby said, also noting that the U.S. couldn't corroborate Hamas's tally.
Similarly, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said on Monday it believed the civilian death toll was in the "thousands," but he would not narrow that down further.
For the first three weeks or so after the attack, Israel's initial response consisted of a heavy aerial bombardment of Gaza. The strikes have caused significant damage to Gaza's infrastructure, and some have hit heavily populated civilian areas. An Israeli strike last week hit a heavily populated area in Jabalia, and there was an international outcry following it. U.S. officials asked the Israeli military to provide an explanation of this strike in particular, according to Politico.
Publicly, the Biden administration has repeatedly stated its support for Israel and its right to self-defense, but the staggering death toll and growing humanitarian concerns within Gaza, among other reasons, have led to increased calls for the U.S. to push for a ceasefire. Administration officials have argued against a ceasefire, saying that it would allow Hamas a chance to regroup and launch additional attacks in Israel like the Oct. 7 massacre, the worst in Israel's history.
But the U.S. has pushed for a humanitarian pause in the fighting in order to get life-saving resources to Palestinian civilians safely and has stressed to the Israelis the need to protect civilian lives.
"Since the very early hours of this conflict, we have been talking to our Israeli counterparts about the need to do that in a way that minimizes risk to civilian life, that minimizes collateral damage to the maximum extent possible," Kirby added. "To be swift, to be aggressive, to be legal, of course, but also to do so in a way that has a minimal impact on innocent civilian life. We're going to continue to make that case."
President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, and the two leaders discussed the possibility of "tactical pauses" to help civilians, Kirby added, saying the administration will "continue to advocate for temporary localized pauses in the fighting."
Thousands of Hamas fighters broke through the Israel border fence from Gaza on the morning of Oct. 7 and proceeded to slaughter approximately 1,400 people, the vast majority of whom were civilians. More than 200 people were kidnapped and brought back to Gaza in the attacks, and only five have been freed so far.
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A Hamas official has said since the attack that the group intends to do it again.
Since the attack, Hamas has launched thousands of rockets into Israel, sending Israelis into bomb shelters as they use the Iron Dome air defense system to intercept them. The terror group intentionally embeds itself within the Gaza civilian population in order to make it more challenging for Israeli forces to attack it. Hamas has also spent years building up an underground tunnel maze below heavily populated areas that provide the fighters cover from Israeli strikes and the ability to hide weapons.