White House sends mixed messages on Gaza war duration after Israel says months needed

WASHINGTON

The White House sent mixed messages Thursday about the timeline for Israel's ongoing war in Gaza, just hours after a senior Israeli minister said the war is likely to endure for several more months.

"We're not dictating terms to the Israelis about how long it has to take. It has to take as long as they feel they need to take to be able to eliminate this threat," National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters at the White House.

"But obviously, we all want it to be over as soon as possible," he added.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said earlier Thursday that dismantling Hamas "will take more than a few months," telegraphing a likely extended war in the coastal enclave even as the death toll rapidly nears 20,000.

Israel began its war in retaliation for a surprise cross-border attack by Hamas Oct. 7 in which over 1,200 people were killed and an estimated 239 others taken back to Gaza as hostages, according to official figures.

But the pace of civilian deaths in Gaza is rapidly outstripping other modern conflicts, and the UN repeatedly sounded the alarm of a spiraling humanitarian catastrophe amid the mass displacement of nearly 2 million people and rampant shortages in food and clean water.

Gallant made his remarks in an apparent rebuff after meeting with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who is in Israel to meet with senior officials as part of a regional tour.

During his meetings with Israeli officials, Sullivan reportedly said Israel's war in Gaza needs to transition "to the next lower intensity phase in a matter of weeks, not months," online news website Axios reported, citing two US and Israeli officials.

Asked about the timeline put forward by Israeli officials, Kirby said it is consistent with prior statements made by Tel Aviv.

"There's nothing new there. That's very consistent with what they've been saying," he said.

Turning to the spike in the number of Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank since Oct. 7, Kirby said the marked increase is "troublesome."

"These numbers are troublesome as well. And we are deeply concerned about that. And that is yet another thing that we continue to talk to our Israeli counterparts about," he said.

A dozen Palestinians were killed during a three-day raid on the city of Jenin and its associated refugee camp, raising the number of Palestinian fatalities in the West Bank since Oct. 7 to 287.

During the Israeli operation, 20 houses were demolished, and 700 Palestinians were detained.

The majority were released after being interrogated for hours, according to Kamal Abu al-Rub, acting governor of Jenin, as reported by Anadolu.

The Israeli military has escalated its incursion operations, arrest and lethal force in towns and cities in the West Bank concurrently with its war in Gaza. Attacks by right-wing Israeli settlers in the occupied territory have also soared, as have their confiscations of Palestinian property.