Jacob Magid
The Times of Israel, Dec. 1, 2023
“Everyone around the world who cares about protecting innocent lives, said Blinken, should be “demanding of Hamas that it immediately stop its murderous acts of terror and deplorable use of innocent men, women and children as human shields.””
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Israel’s war cabinet on Thursday that it likely doesn’t have months to wage war against Hamas in Gaza, as domestic and international pressure mounts on US President Joe Biden’s administration to draw an end to the fighting, an Israeli official said.
The warning was one of several issued by the top US diplomat during his meeting with the war cabinet and in separate sit-downs with top officials. At a press conference, he also publicly cautioned Israel at considerable length against allowing the same scale of death and displacement in southern Gaza once fighting shifts there from northern Gaza.
During Thursday’s war cabinet meeting, ministers reportedly pushed back on some of Blinken’s concerns regarding how Israel has prosecuted the campaign, saying that the IDF follows the laws of war and has taken steps to avoid civilian casualties.
At one point in the meeting, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant noted that the Israeli public is united behind the goal of dismantling Hamas, even if it takes months, the Israeli official said. Blinken responded that he wasn’t sure if Israel would have the international backing to continue fighting for so long at the same intensity that was seen before the war was temporarily paused in a truce deal last Friday, according to the official.
According to a report carried by Channel 12 news, the secretary’s timeline gave Israel “weeks” to be able to continue fighting at the current pace. Blinken’s reported and public comments reflected growing unease in the US with the way Israel has carried out the war, which has resulted in scenes of widespread devastation in parts of the enclave and fears of a massive humanitarian catastrophe, with large numbers of Gazans left homeless, hungry and exposed to disease.
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