“We all remain in solidarity with Israel,” Blinken said Friday ahead of a meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog. But, he said, “it is very important that when it comes to the protection of civilians who are caught in the crossfire of Hamas’s making, that everything be done to protect them and to bring assistance to those who so desperately need it and who are not in any way responsible for what happened on October 7.”
But as Herzog and Blinken sat down for a meeting in the Israel Defense Headquarters here in Tel Aviv, the Israeli president detailed the message authorities were giving to Gazan citizens.
“Please move out, because we have the right to self-defense,” he said. “We want you to go out of the premises from where missiles and guns and bombs and mortars are shelled at our people and from where the horrendous atrocious attacks went out. So you move out, so we can go in, according to international law and defend our people.”
He said that 1.2 million pamphlets have been dropped on Gaza with the warning, and that Israeli authorities have made 28,000 calls and sent 6 million recorded messages and 4 million texts.
The United Nations and other international organizations have criticized the Israeli military response for failing to appropriately protect civilians and have said that the order to move south is creating a humanitarian crisis, which the Israeli government denies.
Blinken’s trip was a reprise of a visit last month, just days after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. This time, though, the top U.S. diplomat is pressing the Israelis more forcefully to ease the growing humanitarian situation in the densely populated territory of Gaza, where the United Nations estimates that more than half the population has been displaced by the Israeli assault.
President Biden has called for “humanitarian pauses” in the Israeli offensive that would facilitate aid getting in and foreign nationals in Gaza getting out, after the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt finally allowed people through this week.
A senior administration official said that humanitarian pauses would be among the U.S. proposals “to facilitate aid getting in and hostages getting out” of Gaza. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive planning around the trip.
Biden said Wednesday that he favors such a pause, but not a cease-fire — the first time he has publiclyexpressed the position that senior administration officials took last week.
The Biden administration has offered robust military support to Israel in its effort to respond to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, but it has increasingly urged Israeli leaders to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza and to hold back from a full-scale invasion.
The administration is trying to prevent the conflict from escalating into a regional war, and officials have been keeping a careful eye on Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement as well as Tehran itself.
Blinken said he is pushing for long-term planning for regional security, reiterating that a two-state solution is the best way Israel can ensure its safety.
“We’re focused on the day of,” he told reporters as he embarked on his trip. “We also need to be focused on the day after.”
U.S. diplomats pushed hard to facilitate the opening of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt to enable foreign nationals and wounded civilians to leave starting Wednesday. Blinken said he wants to preserve that crossing, as well as make progress on freeing the remaining hostages held by Hamas.
Blinken met Friday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Herzog, and the war cabinet. He will depart Israel Friday afternoon and meet with Jordanian leaders over the weekend.
