Antony Blinken
On Saturday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the lull in the continuing Israel-Hamas confrontation was caused by Hamas, stating that the terror group ‘reneged’ on agreements.
“I made clear that after the pause Israel needed to put in place clear protections for civilians and for sustaining humanitarian assistance going forward”, Blinken told media at Dubai International Airport.
Blinken went on to say, “And as we’ve seen just today, Israel has already moved out on parts of that, including sending out information, making it clear where people can be in safe areas in Gaza. And we’ll be looking at that going forward. It’s very, very important”.
He emphasized that the conclusion of the pause was caused by Hamas breaking commitments, citing a terrorist incident in Jerusalem and rocket fire before the pause ended.
Blinken noted, “It’s also important to understand why the pause came to an end. It came to an end because of Hamas. Hamas reneged on commitments it made”.
“Even before the pause came to an end, it committed an atrocious terrorist attack in Jerusalem, killing three people, and wounding others, including Americans. It began firing rockets before the pause had ended. And as I said, it reneged on commitments it made in terms of releasing certain hostages”, Blinken continued.
US Secretary of State highlighted the US support for regional peace and stated that the US is working on the release of Israeli hostages.
“We’re determined to do everything we can to get everyone home, get them reunited with their families, including pursuing the process that worked for seven days. We had seven days of a pause; seven days of people coming home and being reunited with their families”, Blinken explained.
“So, we’re on that almost hour by hour. But meanwhile, we’ve also been very clear that we support Israel and its efforts to make sure that October 7th never happens again”, the US Secretary of State stated.
“We’ve also been very clear about the imperative of doing that in a way that puts a premium on protecting civilians and making sure that humanitarian assistance gets to those who need it. So that’s what we’re focused on, and we’re doing both at the same time”, the US Secretary of State continued.
Blinken further stated, “We remain intensely focused on getting everyone home, getting hostages back. It’s something that I also worked on today. So, we’re still at this. We’re also very much focused, as we’ve been all along, on trying to make sure that this conflict doesn’t spread, that it doesn’t escalate in other places”.
“But we’re also using our diplomacy to look at not only what’s happening today and how we’re handling that, but also what happens the day after in Gaza and how we can get on the path to a just, lasting, and secure peace for Israelis, for Palestinians – in fact, for everyone in the region. And that’s also a big focus of our diplomacy”, Blinken added.
Blinken’s statement comes as a seven-day truce between Israel and Hamas draws to an end.
Meanwhile, Israel and Hamas resumed fighting in the Gaza Strip on Friday morning after a week-long truce expired due to the failure of the two parties to reach an agreement on the release of further Hamas hostages.
Soon after the cease-fire ended at 7 a.m. local time, Israeli jets attacked Hamas sites in Gaza.
Earlier in the day, Blinken met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Thursday (November 30), his second visit to the West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
Blinken visit occurred against the backdrop of escalating Israeli settler violence in the region in the aftermath of the October 7 attack on Israel.
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