U.S. officials privately warn Israel to show restraint in retaliating against Hamas

WASHINGTON — As Israel girds for a fearsome ground assault into Gaza, senior Biden administration officials are warning their Israeli counterparts to show restraint and avoid mass civilian casualties and a humanitarian disaster that could turn world opinion against the Jewish state, according to two current and one former U.S. official.

President Joe Biden has been vocal about Israel’s right to defend itself following a Hamas massacre that killed more than 1,300 civilians and soldiers in Israel. His remarks show he’s prepared to give Israel a measure of latitude as the country’s military pummels Hamas from land, air and sea.

“This was act of pure evil,” Biden said Tuesday in a speech in which he outlined Hamas’ atrocities.

Yet in that same speech, Biden dropped in a brief, but telling, message about the need to avoid indiscriminate killing as the war moves into a coastal territory that is home to some 2 million people with no escape route. Biden said that in an earlier phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, they discussed how strong democracies like Israel and the U.S. don’t needlessly target civilians.

"Terrorists purposefully target civilians, kill them," he said. "We uphold the laws of war — the law of war. It matters. There’s a difference."

What he didn't say in his speech, but NBC News later confirmed, is that Biden also urged the Israeli leader to take pains to minimize Palestinian casualties.

Now, Biden administration officials are amplifying that cautionary note in their own private talks with Israeli counterparts, present and past U.S. officials said. In meetings in Israel on Friday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin conveyed to both Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that it's important to observe international rules of warfare, two current U.S. officials familiar with Austin's message said. Austin advised that Israel operate on a higher moral plane than Hamas and be careful to avoid civilian casualties, they added.

Austin conveyed to the Israelis that if they storm into Gaza and civilian casualties spike, the world’s focus could shift from Hamas’ abuses to the deaths resulting from the Israeli incursion, a current and former official said.

“We’re trying to convince them [the Israelis], but emotions are running high,” the former official said.

Still, the former official added that the Israelis have been listening to a certain extent, giving Palestinian civilians in Gaza advance warning to leave the north.

The Biden administration is still workshopping precisely how to discuss a deadly Middle East conflict that caught the world unaware. A state department email Friday advised a small group of officials involved in public messaging to avoid using phrases like “de-escalation/ceasefire,” “end to violence/bloodshed” and “restoring calm," according to a U.S. official directly familiar with the email. That directive seems aimed at aligning the Biden administration with Israel's goal of vanquishing Hamas. The email was first reported by HuffPost and confirmed by NBC News.

Israelis have likened Hamas’ surprise assault to the 9/11 terrorist attack in the U.S., spreading fear and outrage through the country. Israeli leaders are promising a devastating counterattack that crushes Hamas for good. Yet in doing so, they risk killing Palestinian civilians caught in the crossfire and thereby squandering international sympathy and good will.

If Israel expands the battlefield to other countries, they could overreach, much as then-President George W. Bush did in retaliation for the 9/11 attack. After rooting the Taliban in Afghanistan, Bush ordered an invasion of Iraq in 2003 that resulted in a prolonged and deadly quagmire.

Ben Rhodes was a national security official in President Barack Obama's administration and is close to Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser. On Friday, he wrote a post on the social media site X: “The decisions being made now are going to impact millions of lives, reverberate for generations, and risk all kinds of escalation. The U.S. should have learned from 9/11 the profound cost of being guided by anger and fear. I hope that is what we are telling the Israeli government.”

It seems Biden is doing just that. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who also visited Israel this week, said at a news conference in Qatar on Friday: “We continue to discuss with Israel the importance of taking every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians. We recognize that many Palestinian families in Gaza are suffering through no fault of their own and that Palestinian civilians have lost their lives.”

As a close ally that supplies Israel with billions in weapons and aid, the U.S. holds some leverage over how the country carries out its military operations. In the six days since Hamas attacked, the U.S. has sent a carrier strike group closer to Israel in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and provided the Israeli military with “additional equipment and resources, including munitions,” according to a statement from Austin. In addition, the U.S. is planning to replenish missile interceptors for Israel’s Iron Dome.

Over the years, past presidents have on occasion urged Israel to hold back in skirmishes with Hamas lest civilian deaths reach unacceptable levels. In 2014, for example, the Obama administration prevailed on Israel to de-escalate a conflict over rocket attacks coming from Gaza.

Biden may need to have a similar conversation with Netanyahu as the war unfolds, Middle East experts said.

“Rest assured, there will come a time when the administration — in response to an exponential rise in Palestinian casualties, and perhaps an Israel operation that appeared bogged down — when the Biden administration will intercede,” said Aaron David Miller, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former Middle East analyst at the State Department.

Biden, he added, may need to have a blunt “come to Moses, Muhammad and Jesus conversation with the prime minister,” getting him to show restraint.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com