US General Mark Kimmitt says Israeli talk of annihilating Gaza ‘sounds good on TV’ but is impractical and illegal.
Former United States Army Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said that Israeli rhetoric of annihilating Gaza, deemed as sounding ‘good on TV’, is both impractical and illegal, adding that by adopting World War II tactics from Germany and Japan, Israel has committed a serious mistake in its war against Gaza.
Kimmitt said that Israel’s reliance on firebombing and a strategy of “starting new” has not only proven impractical but has also elicited strong disapproval from the people in the region.
The retired general maintained that these tactics have made the Israeli regime unwelcome in the region.
Despite Israel’s recent provocative offences, such as the assassination of a top Hamas commander in Lebanon last week and disruptions to shipping routes in the Red Sea, Kimmitt indicated that Washington is less alarmed about regional instability than it was in October.
He stated that the current situation has not crossed what he refers to as “U.S. red lines.”
On Wednesday, the U.S. said it does not see “any acts that constitute genocide” in Gaza.
“Genocide is of course a heinous atrocity, one of the most heinous atrocities that any individual can commit. Those are allegations that should not be made lightly, and as it pertains to the United States, we are not seeing any acts that constitute genocide,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told a press briefing in Washington in response to a question on Washington’s stance on Israel’s case at the Hague.
The Israeli occupation forces have killed 22,722 Palestinians in Gaza while injuring 58,166 others since October 7, according to the latest figures by the Strip’s health authorities.
Israel has also forcibly displaced 1.9 million out of Gaza’s 2.2 million population, as Israeli ministers voice an intention to expel Palestinians from the area.
Asked whether there are any concerns within the State Department over being involved in the prosecution, Miller maintained that the U.S. has been “committed to addressing the humanitarian situation in Gaza and have made a priority of preventing” the displacement of Palestinians.
“We have not at this point seen acts that constitute genocide, no,” Miller responded to a follow-up question from the press.
The U.S. has long shielded its ally, Israel, from accountability while refusing to condemn any of its crimes against Palestinians.
Washington has been a vocal supporter of Israel’s right to self-defence since the beginning of the brutal war on Gaza, where 70% of deaths are Palestinian women and children.
On December 8, Washington used its veto power to block a UN Security Council resolution over a ceasefire in Gaza while militarily backing Israel.
Washington had bypassed Congress for the second time on December 29 to approve an estimated $147.5 million in weapons for Israel. This came after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a Republican bill to provide $14.3 billion in aid to Israel on November 2.
The amount was in addition to the annual $3.8 billion military aid that includes fighter jets and destructive bombs. Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. foreign military aid.
The U.S. also provided Israel with 15,000 bombs and 57,000 artillery shells “shortly after” the surprise Hamas attack on October 7, according to a Wall Street Journal report on December 1.
Amnesty International previously confirmed in a report on December 5 that U.S.-made arms were being used by Israel after reviewing fragments of the munition found under the rubble of two civilian houses in Gaza.
The report found that Israeli occupation forces used American-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions weighing between 1,000-to-2,000 pounds, during their attacks on civilians’ houses in the south of Wadi Gaza in October.
