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TEL AVIV — The Israeli government agreed to form a “clear plan” for averting civilian deaths before resuming its assault of southern Gaza, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday, a sign of the intensifying U.S. pressure that Israel faces to recalibrate its approach amid the war’s grave humanitarian toll.
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Blinken’s conversations with Israeli leaders were the toughest to date and, by his account, resulted in concrete assurances that they would change how their war is waged against Hamas, the group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7. At the same time, the Israelis left no doubt that they intended to abandon the week-long pause in their military campaign as soon as Hamas stops releasing hostages.
“We made clear the imperative that before any operations go forward in southern Gaza that there be a clear plan in place that puts a premium on protecting civilians as well as sustaining and building on the humanitarian assistance that’s getting into Gaza,” Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv. “And the Israeli government agreed with that approach.”
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Blinken gave no details of the Israelis’ assurances, though he said the United States wants them to designate safe zones for civilians to gather, to allow displaced Gazans to return north to their homes, to avoid significant further displacements and to try to spare critical infrastructure such as hospitals.
Blinken, who is on his third trip to the region since the Hamas attack, appeared to reflect what has become a tenuous balancing act for the Biden administration as it attempts to show support for Washington’s closest Middle East ally even though top U.S. officials are increasingly uncomfortable with the hardfisted way Israeli forces are engaged in combat. He also has sought to advance discussions about what happens in Gaza after the fighting stops, a looming question that continues to sharply divide officials in Washington and Israel.
“I underscored the imperative to the United States that the massive loss of civilian life and displacement of the scale we saw in northern Gaza not be repeated in the south,” Blinken said. “As I told the prime minister, intent matters, but so does the result.”
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Israel-Gaza war
(Oded Balilty/AP)
Israel’s military continued combat operations across the Gaza Strip, striking major cities in the south and engaging in “intense fighting” with Hamas militants in two key regions in the north, a government spokesman said.
For context: Understand what’s behind the Israel-Gaza war.
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What began as a “bear hug” strategy of intense backing by President Biden has become one in which U.S. officials, facing growing blowback at home and internationally, have distanced themselves from scorched-earth Israeli tactics. They have pushed instead for a more targeted battlefield approach — and to act “in accordance with international humanitarian law and the laws of war, even when confronting a terrorist group that respects neither,” as Blinken said Thursday.
Still, he indicated that the Biden administration had no intent to abandon Israel nor push for a permanent cease-fire so long as Hamas is able to threaten Israel from Gaza.
Israeli leaders continue to take a hard line. “We have sworn, I have sworn, to eliminate Hamas,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after meeting with Blinken. “Nothing will stop us.”
In undisclosed call, Pope Francis warned Israel against committing ‘terror’
For now, the U.S. effort has focused on pushing for an extension of the combat pause that began last week to enable the release of additional hostages held by Hamas. Blinken praised the development and said he hoped it would continue until all the hostages are freed, noting too that the break in fighting had enabled humanitarian aid to reach civilians in Gaza “who need it desperately.”
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Thursday’s day-long extension of the pause was announced only minutes before hostilities were set to resume. Eight Israeli hostages were released, the Israeli government said, with the Qatari government, which has been mediating the talks, saying an additional two Russian-Israeli hostages who were released a day earlier would count toward the agreed-upon 10 set to be freed. In exchange, Israel released 30 Palestinian prisoners.
It was unclear as of late Thursday whether the pause would be extended another day.
Hamas has indicated its willingness to release Israeli women and children and foreign nationals who were taken captive during October’s cross-border assault. But as those numbers dwindle, the negotiations over extensions are becoming more difficult. U.S. officials, among others, are eager for the two sides to broaden the focus of their negotiations to also include the release of hostages who are men and military personnel.
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Hamas official Basem Naim said the group was open to negotiating the release of Israeli civilian men as part of an extended, “comprehensive truce” with Israel, though he stressed this would not be possible if fighting continues.
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“It could begin with civilian men and be continued to other categories,” Naim said in a WhatsApp voice message, without elaborating.
Here are the hostages released by Hamas and those remaining in Gaza
More than 100 hostages have been freed since their abduction last month. According to the Israeli prison service, Israel has released more than 200 Palestinians held in its prisons since the deal went into effect. The Palestinian Prisoners Society said that Israel has arrested more than 240 during the same time, with at least 40 arrested between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning.
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And attacks outside Gaza have continued despite the agreement, with a deadly shooting Thursday morning carried out by members of Hamas at a busy intersection that leads into Jerusalem. Israeli authorities said that three people were slain and that the two gunmen, identified as residents of East Jerusalem, were killed by off-duty soldiers and a civilian who fired on them at the scene. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, congratulating “our martyrs” for the “heroic attack in Jerusalem.”
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Blinken said two American citizens were among the at least six injured in the shooting. He offered no further details but condemned Hamas and characterized the incident as an “appalling terrorist attack.”
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli gunfire killed one person early Thursday in Beitunia in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment.
Presuming that the fighting starts again, Israeli experts say that balancing the desire to root out Hamas while extending full protection to civilians will be difficult, especially given the dense crowding in southern Gaza, where most of the territory’s residents have gathered to escape the initial fighting in the north.
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The IDF “will need to be very, very cautious,” said Michael Milshtein, the former chief of Palestinian affairs to Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories and a senior fellow at Reichman University. “It will not be easy.”
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Still, he said, the Israeli public supports the government’s effort to fight Hamas, meaning that Netanyahu is unlikely to agree to a full shift in strategy.
“Right now the only condition the Israeli public has put forward to the leadership is that Netanyahu should be serious enough and really consistent about the goal of eradicating Hamas’s political and military capabilities,” he said. “For many Israelis, this is an existential threat. Nothing less than that.”
Another major focus of Blinken’s visit was what he called “both the day after and the day after the day after” the conflict, speaking to both Israeli leaders and with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah about how to administer postwar Gaza. Blinken has spoken of his desire for a “revitalized” Palestinian Authority to run both the West Bank and Gaza and, ultimately, for there to be an independent Palestinian state.
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Blinken offered a clearer vision on Thursday of what he meant by revitalization, which would be a major challenge given that the Palestinian Authority is largely discredited among Palestinians, who see it as weak and feckless.
He said that “leadership choices” and reforms to combat corruption, empower civil society and support the free press could help renew the organization, though he said that changes were ultimately “up to the Palestinian people.”
Part of the discussion “needs to be about elections,” he said, as part of a broader look at governance, security and rebuilding. A leadership change would be a shift for the group, where Abbas is on the 18th year of what was supposed to be a four-year term, although Israel also would balk at any election that could bring a Hamas-like group to power.
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Netanyahu, meanwhile, has little respect for the Palestinian Authority and has resisted a two-state solution. Even moderate Israelis are skeptical. And whatever peace emerges will be deeply marked by the fighting that is happening now, making planning even more complicated.
Judith Sudilovsky in Jerusalem, Shira Rubin and Lior Soroka in Tel Aviv, Sarah Dadouch in Beirut, Jennifer Hassan, Annabelle Timsit and William Booth in London, Andrew Jeong in Seoul, and Bryan Pietsch in Washington contributed to this report.
Israel-Gaza war Israel’s military continued combat operations across the Gaza Strip, striking major cities in the south and engaging in “intense fighting” with Hamas militants in two key regions in the north, a government spokesman said.
Hostages: More than 100 hostages held in the Gaza Strip have been released. Here’s what we know about the hostages released by Hamas so far.
Oct. 7 attack: Hamas spent more than a year planning its historic assault on Israel. A Post video analysis shows how Hamas exploited vulnerabilities created by Israel’s reliance on technology at the “Iron Wall” to carry out the deadliest attack in Israel’s history. Traders earned millions anticipating the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, a new study found.
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip has a complicated history. Understand what’s behind the Israel-Gaza war and see the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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Israel-Gaza war
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