{"id":147,"date":"2023-11-30T07:41:25","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T07:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/?p=147"},"modified":"2023-11-30T07:41:25","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T07:41:25","slug":"us-asks-israel-to-narrow-zone-of-combat-in-any-southern-gaza-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/?p=147","title":{"rendered":"US asks Israel to narrow zone of combat in any southern Gaza attack"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-highlight\">\n<ul>\n<li>Washington understands Israel\u2019s desire to root out Hamas militants in southern Gaza but believes greater caution is needed in the heavily populated area<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-content\" data-io-article-url=\"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2417671\/world\">\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p data-gtm-vis-recent-on-screen109681369_148=\"499510\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen109681369_148=\"499510\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time109681369_148=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired109681369_148=\"1\">WASHINGTON: The United States is urging Israel to narrow the zone of combat and clarify where Palestinian civilians can seek safety during any Israeli operation in southern Gaza, US officials said on Wednesday, to prevent a repeat of the massive death toll from Israel\u2019s northern Gaza attacks.<br \/>\nUS officials from President Joe Biden on down, including in the State Department and Pentagon, are pleading with Israel to take a more cautious approach if and when the Israeli military extends its offensive to southern Gaza.<br \/>\nTwo-thirds of the enclave\u2019s population of 2.3 million have fled south to avoid the war zone in the north.<br \/>\nIsrael\u2019s operation in the north drew strong international criticism and Biden has taken fire at home for his sweeping support for Israel.<br \/>\nWashington understands Israel\u2019s desire to root out Hamas militants in southern Gaza but believes greater caution is needed in the heavily populated area, said two US officials who provided some details of the advice being given.<br \/>\nMany of the lead architects of the Hamas attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, in which 1,200 people were killed, are in the south, one official noted.<br \/>\n\u201cBut given that hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled to the south, at Israel\u2019s request, we believe Israel should only move forward after operational planning has accounted for the presence of many more innocents,\u201d the official said.<br \/>\nPlanning should include drawing lessons from the operations conducted in the north to enhance protections for innocent civilians, \u201cincluding things like narrowing the zone of combat and clarifying areas where civilians can seek refuge,\u201d the official said.<br \/>\nThe second official said that when Israel was planning its offensive in northern Gaza, US officials advised the Israelis to use a smaller force than planned, and be careful in terms of tactics, movements, unit size and rules of engagement.<br \/>\n\u201cThey are still in the planning phase for the south. We are urging them to factor this into their planning,\u201d the official said.<br \/>\nBoth officials said the US would like the Israelis to make sure they know where civilians are situated, focus on high-value precision targets and make sure they are going after specific locations rather than indiscriminate strikes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington understands Israel\u2019s desire to root out Hamas militants in southern Gaza but believes greater caution is needed in the heavily populated area WASHINGTON: The United States is urging Israel to narrow the zone of combat and clarify where Palestinian civilians can seek safety during any Israeli operation in southern Gaza, US officials said on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":148,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149,"href":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions\/149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}