Thanks to recent humanitarian pauses in the fighting in Gaza – orchestrated by the United States, Israel, Qatar, and Egypt - hostages in Gaza have been freed and are returning home to their families and humanitarian assistance is getting to the people of Gaza, noted Secretary of State Antony Blinken on a recent stop in Israel. He expressed hope that these pauses could be extended in order to get more hostages out of Gaza and more assistance in.
“We share the elation, the relief, of the families from more than a dozen countries, including the United States, who’ve been reunited with their loved ones,” he said. “And yet, there are scores of family here in Israel, the United States, and around the world whose loved ones continue to be held captive and who are desperate to get them home safely. We will not stop working until we get every hostage back home with their families and loved ones.”
“At the same time, we continue to surge humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” said Secretary Blinken. “Together with the UN, our partners in the region, we have significantly increased the flow of food, water, medicine, fuel to power desalination plants, hospitals, and other critical infrastructure.”
“[Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu also made clear that Israel intends to resume its military operations against Hamas when Hamas stops releasing hostages,” said Secretary Blinken:
“Israel has the right to do everything it can to ensure that the slaughter Hamas carried out on October 7th can never be repeated. Hamas cannot remain in control of Gaza. It cannot retain the capacity to repeat that carnage.”
At the same time, Secretary Blinken urged Israel to take more steps to protect the lives of civilians, avoid further displacement of civilians inside of Gaza, and give civilians who’ve been displaced to southern Gaza the choice to return to the north as soon as conditions permit.
Secretary Blinken said “everyone around the world who cares about protecting innocent civilians, innocent lives, should be calling on Hamas – indeed, demanding of Hamas – that it immediately stop its murderous acts of terror and deplorable use of innocent men, women, and children as human shields.”
Breaking the cycle of violence and conflict, ensuring Israel’s security demands, improving the lives of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank is the only way to bring about a just and lasting peace.
