date_range
Monday 23 Dec 2024
LOCAL EDITION
close
LOCAL EDITION
An all-out Israeli offensive on the Gaza city of Rafah would provoke "anarchy" without eliminating Hamas, the US secretary of state said, while agreeing that Israeli forces had killed more civilians than Hamas fighters.
"Israel's on the trajectory, potentially, to inherit an insurgency with many armed Hamas left or, if it leaves, a vacuum filled by chaos, filled by anarchy and probably refilled by Hamas," Secretary Antony Blinken told NBC's "Meet the Press."
Asked on CBS whether the US concurred with a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israeli forces had killed more civilians than Hamas fighters since the war began on October 7, Blinken simply replied, "Yes, we do."
He also confirmed that the hold President Joe Biden has placed on weapons to Israel — as the US continues pressing it to do more to protect civilians and to avoid an all-out invasion of Rafah — remained limited to 3,500 "high-capacity" bombs.
Blinken said the United States was continuing to press Israeli leaders to provide a plan for Gaza once the war is finally over.
"We also haven't seen a plan for what happens the day after this war in Gaza ends," he told NBC, adding, "We've been talking to them about a much better way of getting an enduring result."
Blinken said Hamas had already returned to certain areas of northern Gaza that Israel had "liberated."
A full-scale invasion, he said on CBS, could come "potentially at an incredibly high cost." And, he added, Israel "will be left holding the bag on an enduring insurgency."
