One hurdle in achieving a hostage deal was Hamas’s backtracking from progress towards a deal when seeing public pressure on Israel increasing, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview with the New York Times published on Saturday.
An additional impediment to a deal was Hamas’s wish to see the conflict expanding to additional fronts, with Israel being attacked by Hezbollah and Iran, he noted.
Blinken further asserted that achieving a hostage deal was the most rapid route to end the war in Gaza.
The absence of world pressure on Hamas to surrender and release the hostages held in the Gaza Strip since October 7 is “astounding.
“Why there hasn’t been a unanimous chorus around the world for Hamas to put down its weapons, to give up the hostages, to surrender — I don’t know what the answer is to that,” Blinken noted, adding, “Israel, on various occasions has offered safe passage to Hamas’s leadership and fighters out of Gaza. Where is the world?
Blinken asserted that achieving a hostage deal was the most rapid route to end the war in Gaza, further stating that one hurdle to achieving it was that Hamas would backtrack from progress towards a deal when seeing public pressure on Israel increasing.
An additional impediment was Hamas’s wish to see the conflict expanding to additional fronts, with Israel being attacked by Hezbollah and Iran.
Asked whether he thought Israel had abided by the rules of law during the war in Gaza, Blinken referred to the humanitarian aid provided by Israel to Gaza, “we’ve found periods of time where, no, we didn’t think they [Israel] were doing enough.”
He added, “There’s a big difference between intent and result, whether it’s under the law or under any one standard. The results that we were seeing were grossly insufficient. That is the result of getting people the assistance they need. I think that making sure that people are protected has been insufficient. There’s a very different question about what was the intent.”
Blinken reiterated the US commitment to Israel’s defense when asked why his administration continued to transfer weapons to the Jewish State.
Relationship between the Biden administration and Netanyahu
When asked whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu listed to the Biden administration, especially with regard to Israel’s May operation in Rafah in southern Gaza, the secretary of state asserted, “What Israel wound up doing in Rafah was very different from what they were planning to do before we engaged with them.”
Blinken also negated reports that Netanyahu had barred a hostage deal from being achieved in July. “What we’ve seen time and again is Hamas not concluding a deal that it should have concluded. There have been times when actions that Israel has taken have, yes, made it more difficult. But there’s been a rationale for those actions, even if they’ve sometimes made getting to a conclusion more difficult.”
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