United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken has revealed that United States has four key objectives over his visit to Israel.
In his remarks to Pressmen in Israel on Sunday, the Secretary said him and his team are here at what is an extremely difficult and very tenuous time for the region in the wake of the slaughter perpetrated by Palestinian Militant group Hamas.
Israel declared war on the Palestinian militant group Hamas after it carried out an unprecedented attack by air, sea and land on last week Saturday.
The large-scale surprise assault has left at least 900 dead in Israel, prompted a lethal volley of retaliatory Israeli airstrikes on Gaza that killed at least 687 people.
As they retreated into Gaza, the militants claimed to have taken at least 100 hostages with them and have threatened to kill them if airstrikes target Gaza without warning while Israel pledged that Hamas will pay a heavy price.
According to the Blinken, “We came here with four key objectives: to make clear that United States stands with Israel; prevent the conflict from spreading to other places; work on securing the release of hostages, including American citizens; and address humanitarian crisis that exists in Gaza.
“We started, as you know, in Israel. And it was important to make it very clear that the United States has Israel’s back. We will stand with it today, tomorrow, and every day, and we’re doing that in word and also in deed.
“I spent time with Prime Minister Netanyahu to go through the needs that Israel may have to make sure it can effectively defend itself, and we’ve already seen a lot of that assistance moving forward, and that’s a conversation that’ll continue”, he added.
US Secretary pressed further that Israel has the right and indeed has the obligation to defend itself against these attacks from Hamas, and to try to do what it can to make sure that this never happens again.
“As I said in Tel Aviv, as President Biden has said, the way that Israel does this matters. It needs to do it in a way that affirms the shared values that we have for human life and human dignity, taking every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians”, Blinken stated.
He said he and his team have gone to six countries in the region: Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the purpose of seeing all of these partners was first and foremost to listen to them, to hear how they’re seeing this crisis, and to look at what can be done together to deal with many of concerns that it’s raised.
“What I’ve heard from virtually every partner was a determination, shared view that we’ve to do everything possible to make sure this doesn’t spread to other places; a shared view to safeguard innocent lives; a shared view, get assistance to Palestinians in Gaza who need it, and we’re working very much on that”.
Blinken made it clear that it cannot be, must not be business as usual with Hamas going forward and at the same time, while determined to do everything to address the needs of people in Gaza. “Civilians should not have to suffer for Hamas’s atrocities.
“We are now very actively engaged with countries in the region, with the United Nations, with Israel, to make sure, to the best of our ability, that people can get out of harm’s way and that the assistance they need – the food, water, medicine – can get in”.
He disclosed the appointment of senior diplomats, an experienced diplomats, Ambassador David Satterfield, to lead the United States humanitarian efforts, adding that Amb Satterfield was previously the ambassador to Lebanon, to Türkiye.
Blinken said Amb Satterfield has been here in the region for long time and he’ll actually be here tomorrow to start working on those efforts to make sure coordinating everything, and moving assistance in to people who need it and helping people get out of harm’s way.