Blinken urged Israel to take concrete steps to help civilians as more hostages are released
As Hamas released more hostages on Thursday under a fragile ceasefire, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with Israeli leaders and urged them to take concrete steps to reduce civilian deaths before the military an expected offensive against Hamas in Gaza would resume.
Mr Blinken said he had made it clear to Israeli leaders that there must be a “clear plan that puts the protection of civilians at the forefront” before any military operation begins in southern Gaza. “The Israeli government agreed with that approach,” he said at a news conference in Tel Aviv, without mentioning any specific Israeli commitments.
With the lull in fighting set to end within hours, Mr Blinken said the United States would not oppose a resumption of the Israeli offensive despite international pressure for a long-term ceasefire, and said Israel had the right to protect Israel. itself after Hamas’ cross-border attack on October 7.
“Israel has the right to do everything it can to ensure that the carnage carried out by Hamas on October 7 can never be repeated,” Mr Blinken said on Thursday evening after a meeting with Israeli leaders. “Hamas cannot maintain control of Gaza. It cannot maintain the ability to repeat that carnage.”
Mr Blinken’s visit, which included stops in Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah, came amid days of public statements by Israel’s leaders that a resumption of fighting was inevitable.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Thursday that the goal of Israel’s military campaign was to crush Hamas. It is a goal that Israel, as well as U.S. officials say, is far from complete, even as the number of people killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, has surpassed 13,000, according to Gaza officials.
“We swore, I swore, to eliminate Hamas,” Mr. Netanyahu said after meeting with Mr. Blinken. “Nothing will stop us.”
Mr Blinken sought to shape the expected next phase of Israeli attacks on Hamas to limit civilian casualties, protect critical infrastructure such as hospitals and power plants and ensure the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
But he did not explain how humanitarian aid could continue to reach Gaza if the Israeli army resumed its offensive, as Mr Netanyahu has promised. The ceasefire expires at 7 a.m. local time on Friday.
Mr. Blinken suggested that his call for protection of Palestinian civilians had reached receptive ears, at least in general terms. He also said Israel should allow civilians who fled northern Gaza in the early weeks of the war to return home, adding: “There should be no lasting internal displacement.”
His visit came as mediators worked in Qatar on Thursday to extend an initial temporary pause, announcing shortly before it was due to expire that it had been extended by one day – until Friday morning. Negotiators have hoped that the series of short-term pauses would pave the way for negotiations on a longer ceasefire and ultimately an end to the war.
The new phase of Israel’s offensive is expected to focus on southern Gaza, where, according to US and Israeli officials, senior Hamas leaders are trapped. US officials have said they do not believe Israel will withdraw from resuming war against the group.
After seven weeks of intense fighting and bombing in Gaza, the break between Israel and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has provided a week of relative calm for the territory’s 2.2 million residents. The ceasefire is based on the daily release of women and children abducted by Hamas in exchange for freeing groups of Palestinian women and minors from Israeli prisons, in addition to bringing aid into the Gaza Strip.
Now negotiations for further releases have reached a crucial, perhaps more difficult, stage.
Zaher Jabareen, a member of the Hamas Politburo, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that the group was willing to continue exchanging captured women and children, but that it would ask for much more in negotiations over captured Israeli soldiers as part of her goal to free all captured Israeli soldiers. Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
“We must end this issue forever,” he said. Of the 240 people kidnapped to Gaza last month, Hamas is said to have arrested several dozen Israeli soldiers.
As part of the temporary ceasefire, Hamas has released ten Israeli hostages daily in exchange for thirty Palestinian prisoners or detainees. Under the agreement, more than 100 people have been freed from Gaza, in addition to foreigners whose release was negotiated separately.
On Thursday, Hamas released another eight Israeli hostages, including two minors and six women. Among them were Mia Schem, 21, a dual French and Israeli citizen, and Amit Soussana, 40, Israeli.
Ms Schem was kidnapped from the site of the Tribe of Nova music festival, where at least 260 people were killed in the Hamas attack. She was featured in a video released by the group on October 16.
On Thursday night, Israel also… prominent Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi including women and children released from Israeli prisons. She was technically part of Wednesday’s release group, but hers was postponed until Thursday morning.
The Israeli army arrested Ms Tamimi, 22, in a pre-dawn raid on November 6 on suspicion of inciting violence and calling for terrorist activities. But she was not charged in the nearly three weeks she was held in Damon Prison, near Haifa, Israel.
Later on Thursday, another 30 Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli prisons as part of the ceasefire, the Israeli Prison Service announced.
Mr Blinken’s visit was his fourth to Israel since last month’s Hamas-led attacks, which Israeli officials said killed 1,200 people. In addition to Mr. Netanyahu, he met with Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
The visits came at a time of particular tension in Israel. At least three people were killed and six others injured at a bus stop on the outskirts of Jerusalem on Thursday morning after two Palestinian gunmen opened fire, in the deadliest shooting in the capital since Israel began its retaliatory war in Gaza. Hamas later said the gunmen were members of its military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades.
In a statement on messaging app Telegram, Hamas called the attack “a natural response” to Israel’s “brutal massacres” in Gaza.
Israel’s Shin Bet security service identified the gunmen as Murad Nimr, 38, and Ibrahim Nimr, 30, Palestinian brothers from east Jerusalem who, it said in a statement, were imprisoned for what they called “terrorist activities.”
Mr. Blinken said the attack was a reminder “of the threat of terrorism that Israel and Israelis face every day.”
Michael Crowley reported from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv; And Thomas Voller from San Francisco. Reporting was contributed by Aaron Bokserman from Jerusalem, Talya Minsberg from Tel Aviv, Ben Hubbard from Istanbul, Anushka Patil from New York and Matthew Mpoke Bigg from London.