National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan denied that the US provided direct military assistance during Israel’s operation that rescued four hostages from the Nuseirat refugee camp Saturday.
Sullivan acknowledged that the US did provide the Israel Defense Forces with general intelligence as it has done throughout the Israel-Hamas war, but was adamant that the US was not involved in the operation.
“One thing I can say is that there were no US forces, no US boots on the ground involved in this operation. We did not participate militarily in this operation,” Sullivan told CNN’s “State of the Union” in a pretaped interview for Sunday.
“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 explained earlier. “We have generally provided support to the IDF.”
On Saturday, Israeli officials announced a successful military endeavor to rescue Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv from two separate locations in Nuseirat.
Those four hostages had been captured by Hamas during the bloody Oct. 7, 2023 surprise attack that is estimated to have killed some 1,200 Israelis.
Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry said the rescue operation killed 236 Palestinians and injured more than 400 others.
“We, the United States are not in a position today to make a definitive statement about that,” Sullivan said when asked about the casualty count.
“We do know this … Innocent people were tragically killed in this operation.”
“And that is heartbreaking. That is tragic.”
In the wake of Saturday’s raid, there are now believed to be about 116 hostages still in Gaza, about 41 of whom are thought to be dead, CNN reported.
Sullivan stressed that he has not seen strong evidence that hostages were killed in Saturday’s rescue mission and also expressed uncertainty over Hamas’ potential response.
“It’s hard for me to put myself in the mindset of a Hamas terrorist. We don’t know exactly what it is that they’re going to do,” he said.
Sullivan stressed that he has not seen strong evidence that hostages were killed in Saturday’s rescue mission and also expressed uncertainty over Hamas’ potential response.
Looming over the operation is a ceasefire deal that President Biden championed late last month.
That deal features three key phases: Israel pulls out of heavy population centers in the Gaza Strip and the two sides exchange prisoners, Israel and Hamas would then deliberate over a permanent end to the war, and then the reconstruction of Gaza would commence.
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“That would obviously be the best solution to this. In the absence of that, without Hamas saying yes to the deal, 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,” Sullivan said.