Kirby: ‘I Can’t Speak To’ What the IDF Will Do Following Their Partial Troop Withdrawal from Gaza

BRENNAN: “Prime Minister Netanyahu says, Israel is one step away from victory, but they still plan to go into Rafah. Has Netanyahu agreed to President Biden’s request to make this targeted, and not a ground assault?”
KIRBY: “We have been very clear with the Prime Minister and his team that we don’t support a ground operation in Rafah, that there are other ways, other options that they need to look at for how they’re going to go after the Hamas threat that still is in Rafah. We had a virtual meeting last week. We expect to have an in-person meeting with Israeli counterparts in the next week or so — we’re still narrowing down the schedule — where we hope to be able to present in more detail our thinking, some of our alternatives, the kinds of things that we want them to learn from our own experiences about how to do operations of this regard.”
BRENNAN: “So, as you heard, the IDF says this is an evolution of the war to draw down some of these troops. Exactly what are they preparing for? Is this for another front in this conflict?”
KIRBY: “Well, I certainly wouldn’t speak to IDF operations or their planning one way or another.”
BRENNAN: “They haven’t told the U.S.?”
KIRBY: It’s a sovereign military. The indications that we’ve been getting from them this morning is this is really largely rest and refit for troops that have been on the ground consecutively now for four months and they need a chance to come out now. Now, what they’ll do with those troops after a rest and refit, I can’t speak to. All I can do is say what I said before. We don’t support a major ground operation in Rafah. That has not changed. And we’re looking forward to having conversations with the Israelis about alternatives to those kinds of operations.”