As the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas ended Friday, restarting fighting for the first time in seven days, the Biden administration's attention is turning to the delicate situation in southern Gaza. The White House is now urging Israel to better protect Palestinian civilians in the next stage of operations while still defending its right to target Hamas.

What You Need To Know

  • Fighting in Gaza picked back up again on Friday after talks to extend the truce reached last week — which, over seven days, saw Hamas release around 100 hostages and Israel release more than 200 Palestinian prisoners — did not yield results
  • The Biden administration is urging Israel to better protect Palestinian civilians in the next stage of operations while still defending its right to target Hamas 
  • The administration is warning the civilian casualties seen in northern Gaza cannot be repeated in the southern portion of the Palestinian territory – the area in which  Israel previously urged civilians to flee to get out of harm’s way

“We believe they have every right and responsibility to conduct operations against Hamas,” National Security Council Coordinador for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters on Friday."

“We also believe that they carry a special burden, and Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken has talked about that special burden, including just in this last trip to the region, to avoid civilian casualties to the maximum extent possible — to be as precise and targeted and delivered as they can be.”

The fighting picked back up Friday after talks to extend the truce reached last week — which, over seven days, saw Hamas release around 100 hostages and Israel release more than 200 Palestinian prisoners — did not yield results. 

Given Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyau’s pledge to restart military operations when releases ended and Israel’s focus expected to soon shift south, the administration is warning that civilian casualties seen in northern Gaza cannot be repeated in the southern portion of the Palestinian territory – the area which Israel directed civilians to flee to get out of harm’s way.

“We discussed the details of Israel’s ongoing planning, and I underscored the imperative to the United States that the massive loss of civilian life and displacement of the scale we saw in northern Gaza not be repeated in the south,” Blinken said in Tel Aviv on Thursday. “As I told the prime minister, intent matters, but so does the result.” 

Earlier in the week, Kirby cautioned that fresh operations in the south will bring a new challenge: hundreds of thousands of additional civilians now in southern Gaza that heeded warnings to leave Gaza City and areas in the north. 

“And so it’s even all that more of an added burden on Israel to make sure that as they start to plan for operations in the south, whatever that looks like, that they have properly accounted for...the extra innocent life that is now in south Gaza,” he said.

The administration is facing mounting pressure about the rising Palestinian death toll, both internationally and domestically, including some Democrats in Congress calling for the U.S. to put conditions on any further aid to Israel.

Blinken on Thursday made clear the Biden administration expects Israel to have “civilian protection plans” in place.

“In my meetings today with the prime minister and senior Israeli officials, I made clear that before Israel resumes major military operations, it must put in place humanitarian civilian protection plans that minimize further casualties of innocent Palestinians,” Blinken said during a press conference.

“But Israel has the most sophisticated – one of the most sophisticated militaries in the world.  It is capable of neutralizing the threat posed by Hamas while minimizing harm to innocent men, women, and children,” Blinken added. “And it has an obligation to do so.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report