Washington sees no genocide in Gaza, condemns aid convoy attacks

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday that President Joe Biden's administration does not view the killings of Palestinians in Gaza by Israel in its war with Hamas as genocide.

Sullivan said the United States wants to see Hamas defeated. He also said that Palestinians caught in the middle of the war were in "hell" and that a major military operation by Israel in Rafah would be a mistake.

"We do not believe what is happening in Gaza is a genocide. We have been firmly on record rejecting that proposition," Sullivan told reporters at the White House.

Sullivan expressed concern about reports of Israeli settlers attacking a humanitarian aid convoy on its way to Erez Crossing in northern Gaza, the second such incident in less than a week.

"It is a total outrage that there are people who are attacking and looting these conveys," Sullivan said. "It is completely and utterly unacceptable behavior."

Biden has sought to influence Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's approach to the war, Sullivan said, but Israel is a sovereign, democratic nation that ultimately makes its own decisions, Sullivan said.

"The prime minister doesn't have to answer to us. He's got to answer to the Israeli people," Sullivan said.

Reuters