US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said today that the world must put pressure on Hamas, not just Israel, at a time of growing international criticism of Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
“There seems to be a silence about what Hamas could, should, must do if we want to end the suffering of innocent men, women and children,” Blinken said at a news conference, Agence France-Presse reported.
He assessed that it would be good for the world to unite in this.
Blinken emphasized that ending the war between Hamas and Israel “as soon as possible” is a priority of the administration of US President Joseph Biden in the coming year.
That goal was marked number four on the list of priorities set by the US Secretary of State at the year-end press briefing.
“Clearly that conflict needs to pass and it will pass into a phase of less intensity. We expect to see and want to see a transition to targeted operations, with fewer forces really focused on dealing with the Hamas leadership, the tunnel network and several other different things,” Blinken said, Israeli media reported.
He assessed that when that happens, “damage to civilians” will also decrease, but he announced that the US will continue to help Israel, so that what happened on October 7, when the war started, would never happen again.
In addition, he announced that the Biden administration will work quickly to end the war “by reducing the loss of civilian life and suffering, returning hostages home safely, preventing the conflict from spreading, and breaking the devastating cycle of violence and moving toward sustainable lasting peace.”
Referring to efforts to reach another agreement on the release of hostages from Gaza, he said that Israel wants it, but that the problem is Hamas, which changed the terms of the earlier agreement.
President Biden, meanwhile, said that an imminent deal on the hostages is not expected at this time, but pressure is being put on to get it done.
