Secretary of State Antony Blinken argued to the Israeli government that a humanitarian pause would be useful in order to buy time to prepare for a ground operation.
While the Biden administration has made it a priority to support Israel in its war against Hamas, it has also pushed for humanitarian “pauses” in order to ease the plight of residents of the Gaza Strip — parallel with increasing pressure to do so on the international stage and from Democrats at home. The Israeli government has hesitated to do so, fearing any pause in the fighting will help Hamas, but Blinken said he believes he can help convince it by pointing to the military usefulness of a fighting pause, Axios reported.
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One U.S. official and three Israeli officials familiar with the talks told the outlet that Blinken reminded his Israeli counterparts how much flak the administration is taking from all over the world for its support of Israel. His main argument hinged on pointing out the benefits of a pause in the fighting for the Israel Defense Forces.
“We don’t want to stop you, but help us help you get more time,” was how several of the officials summarized Blinken’s message to the Israelis.
Despite this, the Israeli government doesn’t appear to have budged. Several top Israeli officials who met with Blinken, including Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a pause in fighting would only be allowed if the Israeli hostages in Gaza were released.
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Blinken and his aides reportedly remain optimistic and hope to get Israeli officials to budge over the ensuing days.
Fighting in Israel and Gaza has caused more than 10,000 deaths, making it the deadliest war between Israel and Gaza since the Arab-Israeli War of 1948, according to Israeli and Palestinian figures. However, Israeli and American officials have cast doubt on the high number of Palestinian casualty figures.
