politics
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (AP) – Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday offered a few of the Biden administration's harshest public criticism yet of Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza, saying Israeli tactics have meant “a terrible loss of life of innocent civilians.” However, they didn’t neutralize Hamas leaders and fighters and will spark an enduring insurgency.
In two television interviews, Blinken stressed that the United States believes Israeli forces should “withdraw from Gaza” but can be awaiting credible plans from Israel for security and governance within the territory after the war.
Hamas has resurfaced in parts of the Gaza Strip, Blinken said, and that a “heavy operation” by Israeli forces within the southern city of Rafah risks America's closest Middle East ally “bearing responsibility for an ongoing insurgency.”
He said the United States had been working with Arab countries and others for weeks to develop “credible plans for security, governance and reconstruction” in Gaza, but “we have not seen those coming from Israel.”… That We should see too.”
Blinken also said a military operation could “have initial success” but risked “terrible harm” to the population as Israel pushes deeper into Rafah within the south, where Hamas says it has 4 battalions and is home to greater than one million civilians gathered without solving an issue “that we both want to solve, which is to ensure that Hamas cannot rule Gaza again.”
Israel's conduct of the war, he said, has put the country “on the path to possibly inheriting an insurgency with many armed Hamas left, or, if that remains, a vacuum of chaos, filled with anarchy and likely re-invaded by Hamas.” to be filled up.” . We talked to them a few a lot better method to achieve an enduring result and lasting safety.”
Blinken also reiterated, for the primary time publicly by a U.S. official, the findings of a brand new Biden administration report back to Congress on Friday that said Israel's use of U.S. weapons in Gaza likely violated international humanitarian law. The report also said that wartime conditions prevented American officials from ascertaining this with certainty during certain air strikes.
“When it comes to the use of weapons, there is concern about incidents where, given the totality of the harm inflicted on children, women and men, Israel could reasonably be expected to have acted in a manner in certain cases that does not comply with the law.” “International humanitarian law violates international humanitarian law,” Blinken said. He referred to “the terrible loss of life of innocent civilians.”
Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan raised concerns a few military ground operation in Rafah in a phone call together with his Israeli counterpart Tzachi Hanegbi on Sunday and discussed “alternative courses of action” that will ensure Hamas is defeated “everywhere in Gaza,” in keeping with a summary of the conversation within the White House. Hanegbi “confirmed that Israel is taking U.S. concerns into account,” the White House said.
The war began on October 7 after a Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. About 250 people were taken hostage. According to Gaza's Health Ministry, the Israeli offensive has killed greater than 35,000 Palestinians, mostly women and youngsters.
U.S. and U.N. officials say Israeli restrictions on food deliveries have led to full-scale famine within the northern Gaza Strip since Oct. 7.
Tensions between Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the course of the war, in addition to domestic tensions over US support for Israel, with protests on US university campuses and lots of Republican lawmakers saying Biden must give Israel the whole lot it needs. The issue could play a vital role within the end result of the presidential election in November.
Biden said in an interview with CNN last week that his administration wouldn’t provide weapons that Israel could use in a significant attack on Rafah.
Blinken appeared on CBS' “Face the Nation” and NBC's “Meet the Press.”
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