As long as over 240 hostages remain in Hamas’s custody, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not consider the “humanitarian pause” Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged when the pair met Friday.
Israel “refuses a temporary ceasefire that doesn’t include a return of our hostages,” Netanyahu said after meeting with Blinken. Disregarding the top diplomat’s call for a ceasefire, the prime minister added his nation will continue bombarding the Gaza Strip with “all of its power.”
A humanitarian pause would “increase security for civilians and permit the more effective and sustained delivery of humanitarian assistance,” Blinken told reporters on his fourth trip to the Jewish state since Hamas’s October 7 attack that left over 1,400 Israelis dead. “We are focused on getting hostages back to their families and we believe a humanitarian pause could facilitate it.”
“That was an important area of discussion today with Israeli leaders — how, when and where these can be implemented, what work needs to happen, and what understandings must be reached,” Blinken added.
Only four hostages — two Israelis and two American-Israelis — have been released since the Middle Eastern conflict began nearly a month ago, and an Israeli soldier was rescued from Hamas earlier this week. The Israel Defense Forces believe the militant group still holds 242 people prisoner.
While Netanyahu and Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant made it clear Israel is not interested in temporarily pausing its war, Blinken said the option remains open.
“A number of legitimate questions were raised by Israel including how to connect the pause to the release of hostages and how to make sure Hamas doesn’t use these pauses to its own advantage,” said Blinken. “These are issues we need to tackle urgently and we believe it can be solved.”
After backing Israel to the hilt in every public appearance he’s made since the Hamas invasion, President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he thinks there should be a humanitarian pause.
The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry claimed Thursday that over 9,000 people have died in Gaza since the war began. Among them were more than 3,600 children and 2,300 women, it said, without differentiating between the deaths of civilians and terrorists.
The Israeli military is currently moving forward with its continued airstrikes and expanded ground operations to root out Hamas.
Blinken reportedly met with Israeli president Isaac Herzog and the recently formed war cabinet during his Friday visit.