Blinken calls out other countries for not demanding Hamas surrender and ‘stop hiding behind civilians’ | CNN Politics
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday called out other countries for not demanding Hamas surrender.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday called out other countries for not demanding Hamas surrender.

“What is striking to me is that even as, again, we hear many countries urging the end to this conflict, which we would all like to see, I hear virtually no one saying – demanding of Hamas that it stop hiding behind civilians, that it lay down its arms, that it surrender. This is over tomorrow if Hamas does that. This would have been over a month ago, six weeks ago, if Hamas had done that,” Blinken said during a press briefing at the State Department Wednesday.

“How can it be that there are no demands made of the aggressor and only demands made of the victim,” Blinken went on to say.

The strong comments from Blinken come as the United Nations Security Council continues to negotiate a resolution calling for a suspension in fighting and encouraging more humanitarian aid into the beleaguered Gaza Strip, and as the United States’ support for the resolution remains unresolved.

    • kick_out_the_jams@kbin.social
      1118·
      1 year ago

      Blinken noted in the briefing that “understandably, everyone would like to see this conflict end as quickly as possible,” but, he observed, “if it ends with Hamas remaining in place and having the capacity and the stated intent to repeat October 7th again and again and again, that’s not in the interests of Israel, it’s not in the interests of the region, it’s not in the interests of the world.”

      Obviously not but it’s an important part of the discussion, especially with their stated interest in repeating it.

      • snooggums@kbin.social
        215·
        1 year ago

        So after this one is resolved and Israel violates the ceasefire does that count as starting again?

        • mwguy@infosec.pubEnglish
          719·
          1 year ago

          What planet are you living on? Hamas will violate the cease fire on day one.

                • mwguy@infosec.pubEnglish
                  11·
                  1 year ago

                  In the hour after the ceasefire was declared, twelve rockets were launched from Gaza into Israel. All of them landed in open areas.[217][219] Air raid sirens sounded in Eshkol, Sderot, Hof Ashkelon, Ashdod, Kiryat Malachi and Sha’ar Hanegev. One rocket over Ashdod was intercepted by the Iron Dome.[220]

                  In the section called Post-ceasefire incidents. source

                  • NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social
                    2·
                    1 year ago

                    It doesn’t say who launched these, but given their actions after that (they didn’t launch rockets and prevented other groups from launching them) those are likely not Hamas rockets.

                    On the other hand, we have Israel who didn’t even try to follow the ceasefire.

                    The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)[109] reported monthly Israeli attacks involving drones, missiles, small arms fire and airstrikes. Six of the deaths in Gaza occurred in the border area’s Access Restricted Areas (ARAs, non-demarcated zones within Gazan territory unilaterally defined by Israel as being of restricted access), despite the ceasefire’s prohibition on Israeli attacks on these areas.[31][109] OCHAO, more broadly sourced data, reported 11 deaths in Gaza and 81 injuries for 2013.[110]

                    In the first three months after the IDF Operation Pillar of Defense, according to Ben White, two mortar shells struck Israeli territory, while four Gazans were shot dead and 91 were wounded by Israeli forces who fired inside Gazan territory on 63 occasions, made 13 incursions into the Strip, and attacked the Gazan fishing fleet 30 times.[111] Israeli attacks on Gaza steadily increased during the second half of 2013, notwithstanding the decrease in attacks from Gaza.

                    Israel’s violations in these two paragraphs alone are in the triple digits.

        • mwguy@infosec.pubEnglish
          16·
          1 year ago

          Nobody in Gaza. Israel stopped doing so in 2005 in an effort to generate sustainable peace in the region.

            • mwguy@infosec.pubEnglish
              13·
              1 year ago

              Neither party in this war was illegally occupying or settling the other.

                • mwguy@infosec.pubEnglish
                  13·
                  1 year ago

                  In the Gaza disengagement of 2005, Israel evicted every Jewish settler and resident in the Gaza strip and pulled back to the 1967 borders.

                  It was a move by Israel’s left wing parties to prove that such an action, if taken across all of the West Bank, would be successful at providing peace to the region.

                  Russia clearly invaded Ukraine. Don’t be a doofus.