White House: 'No enduring end' to Gaza conflict until Hamas releases all hostages

WASHINGTON

The White House on Monday reasserted that the conflict in Gaza will not end until all hostages in the hands of Palestinian group Hamas are freed.

"There could be no enduring end to this crisis until Hamas releases the men and women that they are holding hostage, all of them," National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

"Their release in a prolonged humanitarian pause is also essential for bringing critical relief to the innocent people of Gaza, who have absolutely nothing to do with the underlying conflict. This remains our paramount objective," he said.

The spokesman said the White House has seen reports that civilians were killed over the weekend in Rafah due to Israeli operations but he said he cannot confirm those reports.

"But as we have said many times the proper number of civilian casualties is zero. We don't want to see a single innocent civilian death, Israeli or Palestinian," he added, even as deaths in Gaza near the 29,000 mark.

Kirby said Hamas remains a threat to the Israeli people and that the Israeli military is going to continue operations against their leadership and their infrastructure.

"We don't believe it's advisable to go in in a major way in Rafah without a proper, executable effective, incredible plan for the safety of the more than a million Palestinians that are taking refuge in Rafah,” he explained.

Civilians “left the north and they certainly went south of Khan Younis to try to get out of the fighting. So Israel has an obligation to make sure they can protect (them)," he added.

Kirby also said the US knows that Hamas’ leadership and fighters migrated to southern Gaza after they got pressured in the north.

"So they went down to Khan Younis, of course, they were already in Khan Younis but kind of congregated there. And then as the Israelis put pressure on them … they gravitated further south, now towards Rafah," said Kirby.

He said Hamas members' presence and operations "are further endangering the people of Gaza that are now settled or trying to find refuge down there in Rafah. So there are legitimate military targets that the Israelis are going to want to go after and Rafah again, we just urge them as we have to be careful," he added.

Israel has said it plans to launch a ground offensive in Rafah, home to more than 1.4 million residents seeking refuge from war, to defeat what Tel Aviv calls the remaining "Hamas battalions."

Palestinians have sought refuge in Rafah as Israel pounded the rest of the enclave since Oct. 7. The ensuing Israeli bombardment has killed more than 28,340 victims and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war on Gaza has 85% of the territory’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

In an interim ruling in January, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel’s government to desist from genocidal acts and to take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.