Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, on his fourth trip to Israel since President Biden was elected, said Monday Washington would not dictate how Jerusalem conducts its war against the Palestinian Hamas militants who launched a rampage that resulted in the deaths of at least 1,200 people and hundreds of others taken hostage.
But the very fact he made the trip was just the latest sign the Biden administration is increasingly concerned over the humanitarian and diplomatic cost of the two-month operations into Gaza.
“America’s support for Israel is unshakable. I know how terrible these days have been for the Israeli people,” he said. “Israel has every right to defend itself against a fanatical terrorist group whose stated purpose is to murder Jews and eradicate the Jewish state.”
But as the death toll has mounted following Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip, the White House is facing increasing pressure — both at home and abroad — to prod Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government away from a strategy relying on heavy bombardments in densely populated civilian areas to one involving more surgical strikes.
“Democracies are stronger and more secure when we uphold the law of war. Protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza is both a moral duty and a strategic imperative,” Mr. Austin said. “We will continue to stand up for Israel’s bedrock right to defend itself. We will also continue to urge the protection of civilians and to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.”
Mr. Gallant insisted that Israeli Defense Forces troops in Gaza have fully operated within the scope of international law and are minimizing harm to innocent civilians they come across. He also noted that 80,000 Israeli residents living around Gaza and in the north near the border with Lebanon have been displaced since the start of the war.
Mr. Austin also encouraged Israeli government officials to work toward a two-state solution that would grant a homeland to the Palestinians, warning that “ongoing instability and insecurity only play into the hands of Hamas. So we must think together about what lies beyond this terrible season of terror and war.”
While the Biden administration has worked to prevent the fighting in Gaza from spreading, including positioning two aircraft carrier strike groups in the region, Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthi rebels have kept up a steady stream of attacks on merchant vessels passing through the Bab al-Mandab strait that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. The Houthi attacks in support of the Palestinians have proven an unwelcome distraction as Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza intensifies.
“These attacks are reckless, dangerous, and they violate international law,” Mr. Austin said. “We’re taking action to build an international coalition to address this threat.”On a subsequent stop in Bahrain, Mr. Austin announced that the U.S. and a host of other nations are creating a new force to protect ships transiting the Red Sea, the Associated Press reported.
Britain, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain will join the U.S. in “Operation Security Guardian,” Mr. Austin announced. Some of the countries will conduct joint patrols while others provide intelligence support in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
To date the U.S. has condemned the attacks but has not struck back at Houthis sites inside Yemen or targeted any of the militants’ weapons or other sites.
Earlier on Monday, a Houthi spokesman announced the rebel force, which controls much of the country’s north, had launched a “military operation” against two merchant vessels operating in the Red Sea — the oil tanker Swan Atlantic and the MSC Clara, a container ship. Houthi leaders claim the ships were linked to Israel, which they refer to as the “Zionist entity.”
On Monday, the oil and gas company BP was the latest to join the growing list of businesses, including international shipping giants like A.P. Moeller-Maersk and the Evergreen Marine Corporation, that are suspending or rerouting ship traffic to avoid the coast of Yemen.
“In light of the deteriorating security situation for shopping in the Red Sea, BP has decided to temporarily pause all transits through the Red Sea,” the company said in a statement to The Washington Times.
Oil and natural gas prices rose on global markets Monday partly over market nervousness over the instability in the Red Sea. An estimated 10% of the world’s trade passes through the narrow waterway that separates Yemen from East Africa and leads north to the Red Sea and Suez Canal, The Associated Press reported.
— This article was based in part on wire service reports.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.