WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that the Jewish state should not resume operations against the Hamas terrorist group until its forces have a clear plan to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip. Loop.
“I have made clear that before Israel resumes major military operations, it must implement humanitarian civil protection plans that minimize further casualties of innocent Palestinians,” Blinken said, on his fourth trip to Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed to an estimated 1,200 people.
“That means taking more effective measures to protect civilian lives, including clearly and precisely designating areas in places in southern and central Gaza where they can be safe and out of the line of fire.”
Hamas’ war crimes tactics of operating from civilian buildings, including hospitals and schools, have made safeguarding innocent lives an incredibly difficult challenge for Israel, Israel Defense Forces officials told The Post.
Thousands of Palestinians have died in the conflict before a truce came into effect on November 24.
The secretary and the prime minister spoke shortly after Israel announced that it had reached an agreement with Hamas to extend its ceasefire in exchange for the release of additional hostages, which Blinken called “a good thing” in statements to the press. Thursday.
“I know that Israel, the United States and many other countries in the world whose citizens are held hostage by Hamas want all the hostages to return home,” he said.
“And so we’re looking forward to seeing if this can continue.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel should not resume operations against Hamas if it has a clear plan to protect civilians. Via REUTERS
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While the Biden administration had started out strongly in its support of Israel’s intention to eliminate Hamas, its messaging has softened in recent weeks following protests from left-wing and anti-Israel groups.
While Blinken told Netanyahu that the United States will continue to support the Jewish state in its eventual return to fighting, he said such assistance is provided on the condition that it “complies with international humanitarian law.”
Still, the top American diplomat reiterated that since the beginning of the war, the United States has maintained that “Israel has the right to do everything possible to ensure that the massacre carried out by Hamas on October 7 is never repeated.”
“Hamas cannot continue to be in control of Gaza,” Blinken told reporters after their meeting.
“They cannot retain the ability to repeat that carnage.”
“I made clear that before Israel resumes major military operations, it must implement humanitarian civil protection plans that minimize further casualties of innocent Palestinians,” Blinken said. GPO/AMOS BEN-GERSHOM BROCHURE/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
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Since the lull in fighting began, Israel has been under increasing international pressure not to renew its offensive once the deal comes to an end.
But Netanyahu reiterated to Blinken on Thursday that his country intends to eliminate Hamas, one of the two targets of its war.
“We will fight Hamas until we prevail, no matter how long it takes,” the prime minister said Thursday.
“It is a just war. It is a war to end Hamas, the ISIS of Gaza. And it is a war to bring the hostages back home, for as long as it takes.”
The other goal — returning the roughly 240 hostages held by jihadist groups — is advancing slowly during the truce, and Hamas has agreed to release at least 10 each day.
Hamas’ war crimes tactics of operating from civilian buildings, including hospitals and schools, have made safeguarding innocent lives an incredibly difficult challenge for Israel, Israel Defense Forces officials told The Post. ZUMAPRESS.com
War between Israel and Hamas: how we got here
2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip more than three decades after seizing the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.
2006: The terrorist group Hamas wins the Palestinian legislative elections.
2007: Hamas takes control of Gaza in a civil war.
2008: Israel launches a military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fire rockets at the city of Sderot.
2023: Hamas launches the biggest attack on Israel in 50 years, in an early morning ambush on October 7, firing thousands of rockets and sending dozens of militants into Israeli cities.
The terrorists killed more than 1,200 Israelis, wounded more than 4,200, and took at least 200 hostage.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to announce: “We are at war” and promised that Hamas would pay “a price it has never known.”
The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry reported that at least 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,500 wounded since the war began.
Stay on top of news on the war between Israel and Hamas and the global rise in anti-Semitism with The Post’s Israel War Update, delivered directly to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
As of Thursday, 104 hostages had been sent home and another 143 remained detained in Gaza.
After his talks with Netanyahu, Blinken traveled to the West Bank to meet with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the territory’s Palestinian Authority, which also controlled Gaza until Hamas took control in 2006.
Blinken has been clear that he believes the best possible outcome for Gaza after the conflict would be for the Palestinian Authority to return to power there, as “we cannot allow… Israel to run or control” the region where approximately 2 million Palestinians live. he said earlier this month.
In both his Israeli and Palestinian meetings, the secretary said he “discussed our continued focus on preventing the conflict from spreading, whether to the West Bank, Israel’s northern border or the broader region.”
“I expressed our deep concern about measures that could increase tensions in the West Bank, including extremist violence, and proposals by parts of the Israeli coalition government to further expand settlements,” he said.
“I made my expectations clear about how to address these issues.”
He further said that “breaking the cycle of violence” between Israel and the Arab world will require greater engagement with both sides to “discuss practical measures to make a just and lasting peace a reality.”
“We have no illusions: this is not going to be easy. We will surely have disagreements,” she stated. “If we are to move forward with practical steps towards lasting peace [and] security, we have to be willing to resolve these disagreements.
“Because the alternative – more terrorist attacks, more violence, more innocent suffering – is unacceptable.”
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