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full screen US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken, pictured from last Friday. Photo: Kevin Wolf/AP/TT
In television interviews with CBS News and NBC, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken harshly criticizes Israel’s warfare in Gaza.
Israel’s methods have meant a “terrible loss of innocent civilians”, while failing to neutralize Hamas leaders, says Blinken on Sunday.
Terror-branded Hamas has re-emerged in parts of Gaza, and the Israeli forces’ “forceful action” in the hard-fought border town of Rafah risks resulting in Israel standing with “a protracted rebellion in its baggage”, according to Blinken.
– Or, if they leave and get out of Gaza, which we believe they should do, then there will be a vacuum that will likely be filled by anarchic chaos, and ultimately with Hamas again, he told CBS News.
According to the foreign minister, the US has worked to develop credible plans for the future governance and reconstruction of Gaza – which the US has not seen from Israel.
The foreign minister also repeats the conclusion that was recently presented in a report from the US State Department: that in some cases Israel has acted in ways that are not compatible with international law. This is in view of the damage that the warfare has brought to civilians in Gaza.
The report, however, concludes that Israel does not violate the American laws that regulate the possibility of American military support.