Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that the US has not seen any plans from Israel for how the country will protect civilians or the future of Gaza after the war.
CBS’s Margaret Brennan asked Blinken on “Face the Nation” about the U.S. withholding large payload bombs for Israel, amid recent concerns about the Israeli military’s entry into Rafah — where more than a million civilians are estimated to have are taking refuge. When asked whether the US could still deliver these bombs, Blinken said the US is in an “active conversation” with Israel about this and noted that they have “real concerns about how they are used.”
“We believe in two things. Firstly, we need to have a clear and credible plan to protect civilians, which we have not yet seen. Secondly, we also need to see a plan for what will happen after this conflict in Gaza is over. open – finish,” he told her.
“And we haven’t seen that yet because what are we seeing now? We’re seeing parts of Gaza that Israel cleared of Hamas, where Hamas is coming back, including in the North, including in Khan Younis.” he said. “When we look at Rafah, they may come in and have some initial success, but… but potentially at an incredibly high cost to civilians, but which is not durable, which is not sustainable.”
A recent State Department analysis published last week into Israel’s war conduct raised “serious concerns” about its actions in Gaza.
Biden said last week that he would stop sending offensive weapons to Israel if it invaded Rafah, where the Biden administration has repeatedly warned Israel against invading. Blinken said on Sunday that the US has been working on developing a plan for post-war Gaza.
“So we have been working for many, many weeks on developing credible plans for security, for governance, for reconstruction. We didn’t see this coming from Israel, we have been working with Arab countries and others on this plan. I need to see that too,” he said.
“We have the same goal as Israel. We want to ensure that Hamas cannot rule Gaza again. We want to ensure that it is demilitarized. We want to ensure that Israel gets its leaders,” he added.
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