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November 13, 2024
Blinken calls on Israel to allow Gazans to return home
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday called for Israel to allow Palestinians back into Gaza as well as ensuring aid can be delivered to the embattled enclave.
Speaking in Brussels, the departing US diplomat said Israel had achieved its aims in Gaza and should now end the war as it continues to spread across the region.
“The situation is so difficult and so dramatic that to fully redress it, to fully answer the needs of people, the best way to do that is to end the war,” Blinken said.
US secretary of state said Israel had accomplished its goals of dismantling the military wing of Hamas, which initiated this latest war with an unprovoked attack on Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023, and ensuring that no similar attack could be launched by the militant Islamist group again.
“Israel, by the standards it set itself, has accomplished the strategic goals it set for itself. So this should be a time to end the war.”
Blinken added that hundreds of aid trucks in Gaza could not distribute relief supplies due to looting and other crimes.
“It’s imperative that that be addressed. Israel has responsibilities to do that. We’re also working with Egypt,” he said.
Additionally, Blinken called for “real and extended pauses” in the fighting in much of Gaza “so that the assistance can effectively get to people who need it.”
The US had initially set a 30-day deadline for Israel to takes steps to make sure aid gets delivered to Gaza or face cuts to US-Israel arms shipments.
That deadline has passed with no noticeable improvement in the humanitarian situation.
js/jcg (AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa)