On Tuesday, the US Department of Defense (Pentagon) announced that the United States considers the Israeli operation in Rafah “limited,” two days after the bombing of the city in southern Gaza, which left dozens dead and called for international condemnation.
Assistant Pentagon spokesman Sabrina Singh said in a press conference: “We still consider that what is happening in Rafah, what the Israeli army is doing, is limited in scope.”
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the strike that targeted a camp for displaced people in the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip as a “tragic incident,” indicating that his government was “investigating it.”
The Israeli army stressed on Tuesday that its air strike alone “could not” have caused the deadly fire.
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters: “Our ammunition alone cannot ignite a fire of this size,” adding that the army threw two projectiles carrying 17 kilograms of “explosive materials” at a site that targeted two senior Hamas leaders.
Earlier Tuesday, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that Israeli preliminary investigations indicate that the strike was carried out with “the smallest bomb in their arsenal.”
Singh said that the US administration would not make further comments, pending the completion of the Israeli army’s investigation into the incident.
But she said that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had “frank and direct conversations” with the Israeli government, which US officials will continue to do.
She added: “Of course we take what happened over the weekend seriously. We have seen the scenes. They are absolutely horrific.”
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