00:00Mr. Secretary, are you concerned that Iran is going to try and blame Israel or even the
00:06United States for the crash that killed the president yesterday?
00:10And for General Brown, Israel is also conducting operations in northern Gaza, even though they've
00:14said that – they previously said that they had defeated Hamas there.
00:18So particularly given your personal experience fighting terrorists in the Middle East, do
00:22you believe that Israel can achieve its goal of fully eliminating Hamas?
00:27The United States had no part to play in that crash, and so – and that's a fact plain
00:35and simple.
00:36And Israel?
00:37Are you afraid they're going to blame Israel?
00:40I won't speculate as to what they'll blame.
00:43Again, they have to conduct an investigation to see what the cause of the crash was.
00:49It could be a number of things – mechanical failure, pilot error, you name it.
00:53To your question about northern Gaza, you know, and based on experience, not only do
00:59you have to actually go in and clear out whatever adversary you're up against, you have to
01:04go in and hold the territory, then you've got to stabilize it.
01:07The Israelis did not actually – once they cleared it, they didn't hold.
01:12And so that allows your adversary then to repopulate in areas if you're not there.
01:18And so that does make it more challenging for them as far as being able to meet their
01:23objective of being able to militarily destroy and defeat Hamas.
01:27Do you think they will be able to do that?
01:29Well, I mean, Hamas is – it's not just an organization, it's an ideology.
01:34And so you've got to think about – the overall piece of being able to provide security
01:40not only for Israel but just there in the region is going to take a concerted effort,
01:44not just from a military piece, but it's also how we work the humanitarian assistance,
01:49which is why we focus so much – the Secretary and I are talking about humanitarian assistance
01:53and protecting the civilians that are there in Gaza.
01:56Secretary Austin, General Brown, thank you very much.
01:57Gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our press briefing.
02:00Thank you.
02:01Thanks.
