Tel Aviv: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has asked Israel to swiftly improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza for the Palestinian civilians as it continues its war against Hamas and said that the current situation would drive the Palestinians towards further radicalism and end prospects for an eventual possibility for peace talks in the direction to end the conflict. Blinken was in Israel where he met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials. "Returned to Israel for meetings with @IsraeliPM Netanyahu, President @Isaac_Herzog, and other government leaders. Will discuss Israel’s right to defend itself and our work to get humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza," the US Secretary of State wrote after landing in Tel Aviv.
“There will be no partners for peace if they're consumed by humanitarian catastrophe and alienated by any perceived indifference to their plight," Blinken said in a call for Israel to pause its military operations in Gaza to let an increased supply of assistance in.
His remarks came while speaking to the reporters after meetings with Netanyahu and other senior officials, which amounted to some of the Joe Biden administration’s strongest warnings to Israel since the October 7 attack by Hamas that killed over 1,400 civilians and soldiers.
Blinken's support to Israel
However, Blinken also continued to support Israel’s “right and obligation to defend itself, defend its people and take the steps necessary to try to ensure that this never happens again.”
He described being moved by additional video he'd been shown in Israel by the Hamas militants who carried out the attacks, including a father killed in front of his young children.
“It is striking, and in some ways shocking, that the brutality of the slaughter has receded so quickly in the memories of so many, but not in Israel and not in America,” he said.
He also said that he was shaken by images of dead and wounded Palestinian children in Gaza.
“When I see that, I see my own children. How can we not? Hamas doesn't care one second or iota for the welfare and well-being of the Palestinian people,” he said.
Blinken and other US officials have echoed Biden's call Wednesday for a “pause” in the fighting to allow for the release of hostages, underscoring the increasingly divergent views between the allies.
However, Israel has insisted that the hostage release must precede any pause. Hamas kidnapped some 240 people in its bloody October 7 cross-border attack that triggered the Israel-Hamas war.
(With AP inputs)
