Worthy Christian News > Israel-Palestinian Conflict > US Expects Israel’s High Intensity Offensive in Southern Gaza to End in January

US Expects Israel’s High Intensity Offensive in Southern Gaza to End in January

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Senior officials in the Biden administration have said the US expects Israel’s high-intensity military offensive against the Hamas terror group in the southern Gaza Strip to last until January, Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) reports.

Speaking to CNN on Tuesday night, the officials said they anticipate the current intensive operations in south Gaza to run for several weeks and that the IDF will then switch “to a lower intensity military strategy, which is focused on hitting specific Hamas leaders.”

The officials said they hope Israel “will move to a more focused strategy by January,” similar to how the US transitioned from intense military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq to focus on terrorist leaders in particular, JNS reports.

An Israeli official agreed with the US assessment, saying, “We are in a high-intensity operation in the coming weeks, and then we will probably switch to a low-intensity mode,” JNS reports.

In regard to the high numbers of civilian casualties reported in Gaza, one of the senior officials told CNN: “The White House is very concerned about how Israel’s actions will unfold in the coming weeks. The United States has pointedly and directly warned Israel in closed conversations that the IDF cannot reproduce the destructive tactics it used in the north and must do more to limit civilian casualties.”