By Tiffany Williams –
On Thursday a senior administration official in Tel Aviv traveling with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan to Israel, discussed on a call the roundup of the day and the current situation in Israel and Gaza.
On the roundup of the day, the senior administration official said National Security Advisor Jake Sullivanp started the morning, in Tel Aviv, fairly early, attending a meeting with the U.S. embassy team, who he says is “Doing an incredible job out here, and they’ve been working literally 24/7 since October 7th on every aspect of the situation here, from the humanitarian to military support to everything else.”
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who is now on his second visit to Tel Aviv since October 7th, and his fifth since becoming National Security Advisor also attended a bilateral meeting.
The senior administration official said, “The bilateral meetings began this morning with a very intimate, very substantive, very detailed discussion with Jake’s counterpart, Israeli National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi. We kind of sketched out where we are overall since October 7th.”
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Israeli National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi discussed the humanitarian situation and the state of the military campaign.
The day continued with more meetings including a visit to the Ministry of Defense where National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with the Minister of Defense, Gallant, and his entire team. During this meeting National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan got a detailed, substantive briefing on the state of Israel’s military campaign, its objectives, its phasing, and what he expects to see over the coming days and weeks.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and the senior administration official then met with Prime Minister Netanyahu and Tzachi Hanegbi for about an hour. During this meeting the senior administration official said they talked about the current crisis including the humanitarian situation to the military campaign, to the regional situation, to threats coming from the Houthis, from Hezbollah, from Iranian proxies, and efforts to deter those threats and contain the conflict in Gaza.
The senior administration official called it “A very substantive, detailed, very good discussion between Jake and the Prime Minister covering the full waterfront of issues.”
Following his bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with the full war cabinet which the senior administration official said included the Prime Minister; the Minister of Defense and the Chief of Defense, Halevi.
Halevi, the senior administration official said, “Gave a very detailed, again, presentation of his views on the military campaign and the phasing, objectives, and the next steps.”
After their meeting with the war cabinet National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, met with the Prime Minister directly in a smaller setting, the senior administration official said they discussed the war cabinet meeting, and, again “Expectations as we move through the course of the coming weeks or towards the end of the year and into the early part of January.”
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan also met with the former Chief of Defense and former Minister of Defense, Benny Gantz, for a bilateral meeting. In this meeting, the senior administration official said they discussed his thoughts as they move forward in the campaign.
In their final meeting they met with the Mossad director, David Barnea for about two hours. They had what the senior administration official called a “Detailed discussion particularly on the hostages, which remains, first and foremost, on all of our minds, including the President’s mind, particularly after his meeting with the families of the remaining American hostages just yesterday.”
“In all of these meetings, Mr. Sullivan expressed, of course, his support for Israel, following the barbaric attacks of October 7th,” said the senior administration official. “And ensure that Israel can never see a day like it saw on October 7th from any enemy, whether it’s Hamas or anyone else.”
In his meeting’s Mr. Sullivan talked about Israel’s military campaign, its objectives, its focus on maintaining continued pressure on Hamas and the phasing of the campaign.
The senior administration official said, “Any military campaign has phases to it. And frankly, the Israelis have been briefing us, beginning with Tony Blinken’s trip here just a couple of weeks ago — with Secretary Blinken a couple of weeks ago — on its own thinking through timelines, timeframes of how things might go, but of course, always based upon conditions on the ground.”
The senior administration official noted, “There was a discussion in these meetings and also in our prior meetings, and in calls between the President and the Prime Minister, on kind of shifts in emphasis from a high-tempo clearance operation — high-intensity clearance operations, which are ongoing now, to ultimately lower-intensity focus on high-value targets, intelligence-driven raids, and those sorts of more narrow, surgical military objectives.”
“I know there’s been some reporting on timeframes, and I just have to say that it’s just not entirely accurate,” said the senior administration official. “The Israelis have briefed us on kind of its thinking of potential timeframes, and Jake had a very good discussion about the kind of conditions that, obviously, we all hope to be set.”
“There was a heavy discussion on, of course, civilian protection. And the Israelis briefed us in detail, particularly in the Chief of Defense briefing, about the extraordinary efforts that they are undertaking to try to separate the civilian population from Hamas as it undergoes this incredibly, incredibly difficult endeavor,” the senior administration official said. “And again, it goes without saying, as I think Jake gave an interview here on Channel 12 News tonight, about this incredibly difficult situation the Israelis face. And you have to go back to October 7th, when about 2- to 3,000 Hamas terrorists basically invaded Israel, killed 1,200 Israelis, took hostage over 200 Israelis, and then basically retreated into underground fortresses underneath schools, hospitals, and civilian neighborhoods.”
The senior administration official added, “I think it goes without saying, again, that the military challenge Israel faces is extraordinarily complex. It also, of course, adds an extra burden on the Israelis to make sure they’re carrying out their operations with doing the utmost, everything they possibly can, to protect the civilian population. There was a very, very detailed discussion about how the Israelis are going about this and prosecuting the campaign.”
Mr Sullivan, the senior administration official said, “Also had very detailed discussions in all of the meetings about the humanitarian situation in Gaza. I would just remind everyone the United States is the primary contributor to the humanitarian response in Gaza. We are the number one funder and backer of UNRWA. We are the primary facilitator of all the aid going into Gaza. David Satterfield, who was in most of our meetings here today, is working this literally 24/7 to make sure that as much aid as possible is getting into Gaza.”
“We discussed in detail what is called deconfliction to ensure that humanitarian responders from the U.N. on down are fully able to communicate with the Israeli military day to day and hour by hour,” said the senior administration official. “We talked about the protection of hospitals, even when those hospitals are being used by Hamas, both in the hospitals and underneath the hospitals.”
Mr Sullivan talked about the facilitation of trucks and aid getting into Gaza, including the decision recently taken by the Israeli government to do inspections at Kerem Shalom, the Israel border crossing into Gaza.
The senior administration official added, “Very soon, we hope and anticipate the direct entry of aid from Israel into Gaza, through Kerem Shalom, for the first time since October 7th.”
The senior administration official also said “There was a very detailed discussion of the effort to get hostages out of Gaza. There’s about — I don’t want to go through the total numbers, but about 100 or so, maybe less, hostages that are being held by Hamas.”
The senior administration official added, “We know who many of them are. Some of them are American citizens. And we again call on Hamas to release those hostages, and we’re doing everything we possibly can to locate and to bring those hostages to safety, to get them out of Gaza.”
Before traveling to Israel Mr Sullivan was in Saudi Arabia for a meeting with the Crown Prince, and in that meeting they talked about the overall situation.
The senior administration official said, “Of course, the Saudis have their views on the conflict, which we discussed in detail and which we relayed to our Israeli counterparts, and also talked about what can come after this crisis, including the hope and the expectation that what can come after this crisis and after Hamas in Gaza, a more stable, more integrated, more peaceful Middle East.”
When asked about the timetable and how he said reports have been inaccurate, and if there is any specific ask or call for when the President would like to see the high-intensity combat wind down, and if there is a specific timetable that the administration sees, the senior administration official said, “It’s not really about timeframes, it’s about the conditions that will be set. And the Israelis have briefed us in tremendous detail about the phasing of its overall campaign. And I think for those — you know, you have been following this from day one — I think the Israelis had ideas for the military campaign very early, which we found problematic. And I think the President’s visit out here very early in the crisis discussed that in some detail. And the ground campaign was adjusted based upon some of our advice, some of our recommendations, with the recognition that this ultimately is not our war. This is Israel’s campaign; this is Israel protecting its own country. But I think we have had incredibly frank, I think constructive, and detailed discussions with the Israelis about the prosecution of the campaign, the best way to go about it. Now, one of these inflection points will be the point at which there is a shift from major clearance ground operations, which have been ongoing and which actually are ongoing now in parts of Khan Younis, and a shift to a more targeted, surgical, intelligence-driven, kind of longer-term effort against high-value targets, specific military infrastructure, things like that. And when that time comes, I’m just not obviously going to get ahead of this on this call; I think it would be irresponsible for anyone dealing with these issues to talk about timeframes. There is an enemy here that listens to everything that is said. But this has been a part of the conversation that’s been going on, really, since the early phase of the crisis. There was never an anticipation that there would be major ground clearance operations going on. And definitely, there’s a period of major ground clearance operations in key areas and then a shift to a more lower-intensity — again, for lack of better of phraseology, but that’s the way it’s used — lower-intensity, surgical, focused, targeted campaign. And that means that Hamas leaders will never be given any sanctuary or any quarter because it is Israel’s right to go after the leaders that planned and executed the October 7 attacks. But it will look much different, I think, from what you’re seeing now. When that happens, everything else, I’m just not going to get into that on the call. And again, it’s not totally up to us, it’s also up to the Israelis, and it’s part of the back-and-forth conversation we have with the Israelis. And Secretary Austin will be following up Jake’s visit here on Monday.”
When asked if there was anything he could share on what a revamped and revitalized Palestinian Authority might look like, and what might it need to look like in order to return to governing Gaza the senior administration official said, “I just — you know, you have to keep in mind that Gaza has been governed by Hamas since 2006. So this is hardly a light switch. And there was a civil war in Gaza about a year after that in which Hamas basically kicked out what was left of the Palestinian Authority. And so, there’s a lot of work to do here. And I think that there’s a very pretty rich conversation going on with a number of regional partners and also with the Palestinian Authority. And we hear from them, of course, their deep concerns about the current situation in Gaza, and of course, we have concerns about the situation in Gaza — about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, about the civilian casualty toll in Gaza, and also about Hamas in Gaza. Because until Hamas is no longer in charge of Gaza, it really precludes the type of future that everybody wants to see, which is a path — a pathway, ultimately, to a viable two-state solution in which Israel’s security is guaranteed and which of the aspirations of the Palestinian people can be met. That simply can’t happen if Hamas, who has dedicated its entire existence to the elimination of Israel and to killing as many Jews as it possibly can, is in charge of Gaza. So if there’s a future in Gaza in which Hamas is no longer the dominant power in Gaza, and we hope that will be the case, it opens up a lot of possibilities. But I’m not, on this call, going to lay out what those possibilities might be, but I think the Palestinian Authority will look to ultimately have a role there. And that is something that we’re talking about with them and with the Israelis and with regional partners. And I think, you know, we’ll have to see how things play out. But we’re making sure that we are prepared for every possible contingency, depending upon how Israel’s military campaign plays out here over the coming weeks.”
When asked if there was anything they could say about the negotiations and the release of the hostages, the senior administration official said, “It is really central on all of our minds. And as I mentioned, the meeting with David Barnea tonight lasted an extra hour, mainly on this point. And we’re working this every day — Jake Sullivan, Bill Burns, myself, Tony — to work on inroads to try to get the hostages home. And so, I think it’s worth reminding everybody that the deal we had brokered in Qatar broke down because — it was a very clear, very detailed agreement in which all women and children, and women of whatever age, civilian women, would be released. And Hamas, at the last moment, had chose to recategorize young women who are not in the Israeli military, many of whom were kidnapped and held hostage from the music festival, as hos- — I’m sorry, as soldiers. They’re not soldiers. And that’s what broke down the deal. So the issue now is whether and how to try to get this process back on track, again, starting with those women that Hamas has acknowledged that they are holding but they have refused to release. And there are a number of initiatives now being pursued. I cannot state with any confidence which initiative might gain traction. But having been involved in this from the very start, all the way back to the pilot, with Judith and Natalie, the American mother and daughter, the first two hostages we were able to get out, that also felt very uncertain in those early days. So we’re working on a number of initiatives to get this back on track, but I just can’t speak with any detail about those now. But we’re doing all we possibly can to locate, identify, rescue, or secure the release of all the hostages that Hamas is holding.”
When asked if Israel could conclude this war without killing Yahya Sinwar and if that is the main, clearest goal in terms of defining how you destroy Hamas, the senior administration official said, “Look, Sinwar as the military leader of Hamas, I think it’s safe to say his days are numbered. I also think it’s safe to say it doesn’t matter how long that takes. And we know that terrorists — and I remind you that he has American blood on his hands. About 38 Americans were killed on October 7, and he is still holding a number of Americans hostage. So, it doesn’t matter how long it takes, but justice will be served on Sinwar.”
Following his visit to Israel Mr Sullivan will travel to the West Bank, in Ramallah. The senior administration official said, “To talk to the Palestinian Authority about its role in setting those conditions and, of course, our historic support for the Palestinian Authority in many aspects, which we’ll discuss in detail tomorrow with President Abbas and others.”