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January 15, 2025 | 04:15 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Anthony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, said in a farewell speech that Palestinian resistance group Hamas has been able to recruit almost as many new fighters as Israel killed during its ferocious offensive on the Gaza Strip.
Citing Middle East Eye, he said mediators were "on the brink" of a ceasefire.Blinken’s remarks on Tuesday, January 14, at The Atlantic Council in Washington DC provide a rare window into U.S. intelligence assessments of Hamas’s strength. It is likely to ruffle Israel’s positioning after a potential ceasefire, given its stated objective of “total victory and the eradication of Hamas.”
According to Blinken, while Israel succeeded in decapitating Hamas’s leadership in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, the group remains a power in the Gaza Strip and could complicate plans for post-war governance of the enclave.
“Israelis must abandon the myth that they can carry out de facto annexation without cost and consequence to Israel’s democracy,” Blinken said.
He also said that Israel is expanding settlements and nationalising land “at a faster clip than any time in the last decade” and that “violent attacks by extremist settlers against Palestinian civilians have reached record levels.”
At the event, Blinken unveiled his plans for post-war governance of Gaza, but they were overshadowed by his assertion that he would have to hand them off to President-elect Donald Trump's administration after the 20 January inauguration.
'Bloody Blinken'
Reuters reported that Blinken's remarks were interrupted three times by protesters, who echoed accusations that the Biden administration was complicit in crimes committed by Israel in the war.
Blinken has denied Israel's actions amount to genocide and says he has pushed Israel to do more to protect civilians and to facilitate humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Israel's aerial and ground campaign has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, drawing accusations of genocide in a World Court case brought by South Africa and of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court.
Israel denies the allegations.
The assault has displaced nearly all of Gaza's 2.3 million population and drawn the concern of the world’s main hunger monitor.
"You will forever be known as bloody Blinken, secretary of genocide," one protester shouted before being led out of the event.
Blinken said U.S. officials had debated "vigorously" the Biden administration's response to the war, a reference to a slew of resignations by officials in his State Department who have criticized the policy to continue providing arms and diplomatic cover to Israel.
Others felt Washington had held Israel back from inflicting greater damage on Iran and its proxies, he said.
"It is crucial to ask questions like these, which will be studied for years to come," he said. "I wish I could stand here today and tell you with certainty that we got every decision right. I cannot."
MIDDLE EAST EYE | REUTERS
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