Biden’s national security adviser declines to say whether US is comfortable with Israeli rescue operation

National security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday declined to say whether the US was comfortable with an Israeli hostage rescue mission that Gazan officials say killed more than two hundred.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday declined to say whether the US was comfortable with an Israeli hostage rescue mission that Gazan officials say killed more than two hundred. “Innocent people were tragically killed in this operation. The exact number, we don’t know, but innocent people were killed and that is heartbreaking. That is tragic,” Sullivan told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.” “The president himself has said in recent days that the Palestinian people are going through sheer hell in this conflict because Hamas is operating in a way that puts them in the crossfire, that holds hostages right in the heart of crowded civilian areas,” he added. The Israeli military rescued four hostages in a special operation in the Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza, that Gazan authorities said killed 236 people and injured more than 400 others. CNN has no way of verifying casualty numbers reported by Palestinian officials in Gaza. Medical records in the war-torn enclave do not differentiate between civilians and militants killed. An Israeli military spokesperson put the number of casualties from the operation at “under 100,” and had no information on how many of those were civilians. Pressed by Bash on whether the US was comfortable with how the mission was carried out, Sullivan called for a diplomatic solution “where there’s no need for military operations to get every last hostage out.”