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21:54 GMT
WASHINGTON, March 18 (KUNA) -- US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the Israeli forces have killed Marwan Issa, a leading member of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), in the ongoing fighting in Gaza Strip last week.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday, he said, "Israel has made significant progress against Hamas. They've broken a significant number of Hamas battalions, killed thousands of Hamas fighters, including senior commanders."
"Hamas's number three, Marwan Issa was killed in an Israeli operation last week.
"The rest of the top leaders are in hiding, likely deep in the Hamas tunnel network. And justice will come for them too, and we are helping to ensure that," Sullivan pointed out.
"At the same time, more innocent civilians have died in this conflict in this military operation than in all of the wars in Gaza combined, including thousands of children.
"A humanitarian crisis has descended across Gaza, and anarchy reigns in areas that Israel's military has cleared but not stabilized," he noted.
"When the president (Joe Biden) visited Israel on October 18th, the first US president to make a wartime visit to Israel, I might add, he said both privately and publicly that the United States has learned a vital lesson over the course of several wars.
"A military plan cannot succeed without an integrated humanitarian plan and political plan. And the president has repeatedly made the point that continuing military operations need to be connected to a clear strategic endgame," Sullivan added. (end)
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