U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned Sunday the proof of sexual violence dedicated by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 is “beyond anything that I’ve seen.”
Showing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Blinken was requested by host Jake Tapper why he thinks the United Nations and the worldwide neighborhood have been so sluggish to sentence the atrocities, regardless of proof mounting in Israel of rapes and intercourse crimes dedicated by Hamas in opposition to ladies and women, and perhaps even in opposition to males on Oct. 7.
“I’ve heard antisemitism hypothesized as a reason why the U.N. and the international community might be so slow to acknowledge this. What do you think?” Tapper requested.
“I don’t have an answer. I don’t know why countries, leaders, international organizations were so slow to focus on this, to bring it to people’s attention. I’m glad it’s finally happened,” Blinken mentioned. “The atrocities that we saw on Oct. 7 are almost beyond human description or beyond our capacity to digest. And we’ve talked about them before. But the sexual violence that we saw on Oct. 7 is beyond anything that I’ve seen either.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has defended bypassing Congress to promote weapons to Israel and pressed lawmakers to assist Ukraine. (AP Picture/Alex Brandon)
The US stood alone on the U.N. Security Council on Friday to dam a United Nations decision demanding an instantaneous humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza.
The vote within the 15-member council was 13-1, with the UK abstaining. The US’ remoted stand mirrored a rising fracture between Washington and a few of its closest allies over Israel’s months-long bombardment of Gaza. France and Japan have been amongst these supporting the decision for a cease-fire.
In a useless effort to press the Biden administration to drop its opposition to calling for a halt to the combating, the international ministers of Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have been all in Washington on Friday. However their assembly with Blinken occurred solely after the U.N. vote. The Biden administration revealed Saturday that the State Division can be sidestepping Congress to hurry $106.5 million value of tank ammunition to Israel after a congressional help bundle didn’t clear amid debate about funding for border safety.
“We want to make sure that as Israel continues this, this campaign… remember, they are dealing with a terrorist organization that engaged in the most vicious possible brutality on Oct. 7 and has made clear that it would do it again and again and again if given the opportunity,” Blinken mentioned Sunday. “So Israel needs to be able to deal with this to protect itself, to prevent Oct. 7 from happening again. But as it does that, it’s imperative that civilians be protected.”
In Washington Friday, Dec. 8, 2023, have been, from left, Turkish International Minister Hakan Fidan, Palestinian Minister of International Affairs Riyad al-Maliki, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, Saudi International Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Jordan’s Minister of International Affairs Ayman Safadi, and Egyptian International Affairs Minister Sameh Shoukry. (AP Picture/Jacquelyn Martin)
UN REJECTS RESOLUTION CALLING FOR IMMEDIATE CEASE-FIRE IN GAZA
“And here the critical thing is to make sure that the military operations are designed around civilian protection and to focus on that when it comes to humanitarian assistance that we, as you know, made the argument many weeks ago to get humanitarian assistance in, it started to flow. We got it doubled during the humanitarian pause for the hostage releases that we helped to negotiate,” the secretary continued. “But now what’s critical is this. Even as Israel has taken additional steps, for example, to designate safe areas in the south, to focus on neighborhoods, not entire cities, in terms of evacuating them.”
He additionally addressed “a gap between the intent to protect Palestinian civilians and the actual results that we’re seeing on the ground in Gaza.”
Smoke rises from city of Khan Younis after Israeli strikes on Dec. 10, 2023. (AP Picture/Mohammed Dahman)
“What we’re not seeing sufficiently is a couple of things. One, making sure that the humanitarian operators who are there, starting with the United Nations, performing heroically, that there are deconfliction times, places and routes so that the humanitarians can bring the assistance that’s getting into Gaza to the people who need it,” Blinken mentioned.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“Similarly, we need to see the same kind of deconfliction. Time pauses. Designated routes, plural… not just one. And clarity of communication so that people know when it is safe and where it is safe to move to get out of harm’s way before they go back home. These are the kinds of things we’re working on every single day, again, to make sure that that gap between intent and result is as narrow as possible.”
The Related Press contributed to this report.
