The United States will change its policy toward Gaza unless Israel takes immediate steps to better protect Palestinian civilians there, US President Joe Biden warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a terse half-an-hour call on Thursday night.
“With regard to our policy in the Gaza Strip… if we don't see the changes that we need to see, there'll be changes in policy,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Belgium as he discussed the conversation.
US National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby added that his change needed to happen within “hours and days,” adding that he expected to see announcements from Israel.
“The President made very clear his concerns and the prime minister acknowledged those concerns,” Kirby stated.He described how there has been “growing frustration” in Washington over Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
Biden and Netanyahu spoke as the international community, including the US, continued to condemn the IDF airstrike Monday that killed seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen, including an American citizen.
Blinken said that “It's our expectation that Israel will and certainly should announce concrete specific, measurable steps that it will take, and take as soon as possible to make sure that there can be an effective surge in [humanitarian] assistance [in Gaza] that can be sustained. And that humanitarian workers and civilians are better protected.”
Biden: Strike on humanitarian workers unacceptable
During the call, Biden “emphasized that the strikes on humanitarian workers and the overall humanitarian situation are unacceptable,” Blinken emphasized. Biden clarified that “US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel's immediate action” on those concrete steps.
Blinken also appeared to blame Israel for the absence of a hostage deal, as he explained that Biden urged Netanyahu “to empower negotiators to conclude a deal without delay to bring the hostages home.” The Biden administration wants to see an immediate pause to the Gaza War but has linked that temporary halt in the fighting to a hostage deal.
Both Blinken and Kirby appeared to indicate that the US was still linking a temporary ceasefire with the hostages deal. Israeli has warned that decoupling the two issues would make it impossible to arrive at a deal.A senior Hamas leader said on Thursday that Egypt had put forward a ceasefire proposal to end the conflict in Gaza, but that it did not include anything new.
He added US and Egyptian mediators wanted to keep the ceasefire process alive despite their conviction that there was a wide gap between Israel and Hamas.
The Hamas leader said a new round of talks may be held before Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, in Cairo next week between the mediating parties and the Israelis in a new attempt by mediators to reach a ceasefire deal."The Hamas leadership informed the Egyptian and Qatari mediators that what is being offered cannot be accepted, as it is a continuation of the stubborn Israeli position," he added.
Earlier, Hamas official Osama Hamdan said in a press conference from Beirut that there has been no progress in Gaza ceasefire talks despite the Palestinian group showing flexibility.
Hamdan blamed Netanyahu for the standstill, saying he was placing obstacles that hindered both parties from reaching an agreement, and that he was "not interested" in releasing the Gaza hostages. Egyptian and Qatari efforts, backed by the United States, have so far failed to achieve a ceasefire.
Blinken told reporters that the US had not lost its conviction that Hamas is responsible for the war and the absence of a permanent ceasefire, as he referenced the terror group’s attack on southern Israel on October 7, in which over 1,200 people were killed and 253 taken hostage.
“What happened after October 7 could have ended immediately if Hamas had stopped hiding behind civilians, released the hostages, and put down its weapons. But Israel is not Hamas. Israel is a democracy. Hamas, a terrorist organization,” Blinken said.
He noted that Israel has taken important steps to provide humanitarian aid to protect civilian lives, but the “results on the ground are woefully insufficient and unacceptable.
“One hundred percent of the population in Gaza knows acute levels of food insecurity. 100% of the population needs humanitarian assistance. And those working heroically to provide that assistance are doing so in great peril to their own lives,” Blinken said.
Reuters contributed to this report