National security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday declined to say whether the US was comfortable with an Israeli hostage rescue mission that Gazan officials say killed more than two hundred.
“Innocent people were tragically killed in this operation. The exact number, we don’t know, but innocent people were killed and that is heartbreaking. That is tragic,” Sullivan told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”
“The president himself has said in recent days that the Palestinian people are going through sheer hell in this conflict because Hamas is operating in a way that puts them in the crossfire, that holds hostages right in the heart of crowded civilian areas,” he added.
The Israeli military rescued four hostages in a special operation in the Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza, that Gazan authorities said killed 236 people and injured more than 400 others.
CNN has no way of verifying casualty numbers reported by Palestinian officials in Gaza. Medical records in the war-torn enclave do not differentiate between civilians and militants killed. An Israeli military spokesperson put the number of casualties from the operation at “under 100,” and had no information on how many of those were civilians.
Pressed by Bash on whether the US was comfortable with how the mission was carried out, Sullivan called for a diplomatic solution “where there’s no need for military operations to get every last hostage out.”
“Unfortunately, we are going to continue to see ongoing conflict and military operations in which Israel makes efforts to recover its citizens and, frankly, to recover American citizens. What we would much prefer to see is a ceasefire where the hostages come out peacefully,” he said.
CNN previously reported that an American cell in Israel supported the efforts to rescue the four Israeli hostages, but Sullivan would not elaborate further.
“The United States has been providing support to Israel for several months in its efforts to help identify the locations of hostages in Gaza and to support efforts to try to secure their rescue or recovery,” he said, declining to detail operational or intelligence-related matters.
Sullivan added, “We did not participate militarily in this operation.”
The US has not confirmed Hamas’ claims that other Israeli hostages held inside Gaza were killed during the mission, but Sullivan said broadly that it is “always a risk,” going on to advocate for the ceasefire deal President Joe Biden has been lobbying for in recent days.
“The best way to get all of the hostages home and to protect Palestinian civilians is to end this war. And the best way to end this war is for Hamas to say ‘yes’ to the deal,” he said, calling it, “the only credible path forward.”
