US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Israel on Monday for talks expected to focus on Israel’s eventual end to the intense war in Gaza and a transition to a more limited and focused conflict, sources said.
For Austin, the trip is a delicate balancing act. He has consistently supported Israel’s right to defend itself following the Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. But he has also increasingly spoken out about the plight of Gaza civilians as Israeli strikes add to the death toll.
In a speech earlier this month, Austin went so far as to call civilians the “centre of gravity” in Israel’s war with Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that rules Gaza, and warned of the risks of their radicalization.
A US defense source accompanying Austin told reporters he is expected to discuss Israel’s plans to move to the next phase of the war in talks with top Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
“What you see today in terms of intensive ground operations plus airstrikes will not continue forever. This is one phase of the campaign, a Pentagon spokesman said. “We have an interest in supporting the Israelis in planning for what the transition will look like once they decide to complete major ground operations and are ready for the transition.”
Michael Eisenstadt, director of the Washington Institute’s Military and Security Studies Program on Middle East Policy, said both the U.S. and Israel appear to be in agreement on an eventual move to the next phase of the campaign.
But Washington wants it to happen sooner, perhaps in a few weeks, while Israel believes it needs more time, he said.
“So they largely agree on the path forward and the need to eventually move to a more targeted approach, but there is disagreement on the time frame,” he said.
When US national security adviser Jake Sullivan visited Israel last week, Netanyahu told him that Israel would fight “until absolute victory”. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the war “will take more than a few months.”
With brutal ground fighting spreading across the length of the Gaza Strip this month and humanitarian organizations warning of disaster, Biden last week said Israel risked losing international support due to “indiscriminate” airstrikes killing Palestinian civilians.
Austin, a retired general, led U.S. forces in the Middle East and even led U.S. troops in Iraq, which could help him in discussions with Israeli officials, the Pentagon official added.
Austin, the source said, is familiar with how to conduct military operations “on the other side of an intense conflict to ensure that a Hamas military reconstruction would not be viable or feasible in that event.”
In a sign of the Biden administration’s intense focus on the Israel-Hamas conflict, Austin is accompanied in Israel by Air Force Gen. Charles Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Austin and Brown are also grappling with the regional fallout from the war, with groups linked to Iran launching waves of attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria and the Houthi movement in Yemen attacking ships in the Red Sea in support of Hamas.
Iran’s Houthis said over the weekend they had attacked the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat with a swarm of drones.
US Central Command said the destroyer USS Qarni shot down 14 Houthi drones over the Red Sea on Saturday. Britain also said one of its warships was shot down by a suspected attack drone targeting merchant shipping.
