U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is warning Israel that it risks destroying an eventual possibility for peace unless it acts swiftly to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza for Palestinian civilians as it intensifies its war against Hamas.

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    TEL AVIV (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Israel on Friday that it risks destroying an eventual possibility for peace unless it acts swiftly to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza for Palestinian civilians as it intensifies its war against Hamas.

    “There will be no partners for peace if they’re consumed by humanitarian catastrophe and alienated by any perceived indifference to their plight,” Blinken said, even as the call for a temporary pause without the release by Hamas of Israeli hostages was swiftly rejected by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said Israel would be “going with full steam ahead.”

    The comments to reporters in Tel Aviv, following meetings with Netanyahu and other senior officials, amounted to some of the Biden administration’s strongest warnings to Israel since the brutal Oct. 7 rampage by Hamas that killed more than 1,400 civilians and soldiers.

    He described being moved by additional video he’d been shown in Israel by the Hamas militants who carried out the attacks, including a father killed in front of his young children.

    In his first public speech since the war began, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said his group had “entered the battle” with the past weeks’ unprecedented cross-border fighting.

    But the complexity of the situation — and of Blinken’s push for Israel to consider a pause — was laid bare on Friday when Netanyahu, after leaving the meeting with the American official, ruled out the possibility of a cease-fire “that doesn’t include a return of our hostages,” referring to some 240 people Hamas abducted during its attack.


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