Jake Sullivan highlights Israel’s right to defend itself, stresses duty to separate civilians

President Joe Biden‘s national security adviser Jake Sullivan reiterated Israel‘s right to self-defense on Sunday but said the country has to do everything it can to separate civilians from Hamas terrorists.

“Israel has a right — indeed a duty — to defend itself against terrorists. Israel also has a responsibility to distinguish between terrorists and ordinary civilians,” he told ABC’s Martha Raddatz.

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He added, “The United States has a responsibility to do everything we can to make sure that life-saving humanitarian assistance gets to those people who have been affected by this conflict. And we are working with that every day.”

Speaking with CNN’s Jake Tapper, also on Sunday, Sullivan expanded on this, explaining, “Hamas is making life extremely difficult for Israel by taking civilians as human shields and by putting their rocket infrastructure and terrorist infrastructure among civilians.”

“That creates an added burden for Israel,” he began, “but it does not lessen Israel’s responsibility under international humanitarian law to distinguish between terrorists and civilians and to protect the lives of innocent people.”

He emphasized that “the overwhelming majority” of people in the Gaza Strip are innocent civilians.

When Tapper pressed Sullivan as to whether Israel’s attacks could be characterized as “limited, targeted, specific, discreet attacks” or indiscriminate “carpet bombing,” he said, “We stand firmly for the proposition that all measures should be taken that are reasonable and responsible to protect the lives of civilians.”

He further explained this has been publicly and privately communicated several times to Israel’s leaders.

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Tapper then asked whether the Israel Defense Forces were “going about this the right way,” to which Sullivan once again reiterated the U.S.’s encouragement of Israel to use every possible means to separate civilians, avoiding the question.

“The president will speak again with the prime minister in a few hours time today. And he will continue to reiterate the United States’ position on this issue,” he added.