Source : NEW INDIAN EXPRESS NEWS
After recovering from the interruptions, Blinken said in response to other questions that the US has had “real differences” with Israel in how it has gone about defending its people and has “expressed those clearly at various points.”
But “we’ve mostly done it privately, precisely because we didn’t want to feed into Hamas’ clearly held views that if that pressure was mounting, and if there was daylight, they could do nothing,” Blinken said. That “they could refuse to engage on the negotiations, hold back on a ceasefire and releasing the hostages, and thus perpetuate the suffering, the loss for the people that they purport to represent.”
Blinken and other members of the Biden administration have faced severe criticism for not imposing meaningful restrictions on the supply of weapons to Israel or pushing its key ally hard enough to ease a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Israel’s military offensive against Hamas militants—who triggered the war with their Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attacks that killed some 1,200 people—has leveled vast swaths of Gaza and pushed around 90% of the population of 2.3 million from their homes. Hundreds of thousands are struggling with hunger and disease in squalid tent camps on the coast.
The campaign has killed over 46,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and militants but say women and children make up more than half of those killed.
Blinken traveled to the Mideast 12 times in a bid to halt the fighting. President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump are both claiming credit for the ceasefire deal after the White House brought Trump’s Middle East envoy into the stalled negotiations.
SOURCE :- NEW INDIAN EXPRESS
