U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that Israel must decide if its military campaign in Gaza is worth the cost in civilian lives.
Coming just days after an Israeli strike killed dozens of displaced Palestinians in Rafah, Blinken said Israel should ask itself whether "incremental gains" against Hamas "stack up against" the "unintended horrific" consequences of military action. Israel "has to ask whether, and especially in the absence of a plan for the day after in Gaza, further incremental gains against Hamas, but gains that may not be durable, in terms of Hamas's defeat, in the absence of the plan, how that stacks up against some of the, again unintended, horrific consequences of military action in a place where the people you're going after are so closely embedded with civilians," Blinken said during a news conference in Moldova. Though the Biden administration has been urging Israel to do more to protect civilians in the war against Hamas for months, Blinken's remarks were some of the most pointed he's made to date.
However, the U.S. has not gone as far as allies like France in condemning the Rafah strike, with the White House making clear it believes Israel has not crossed a red line that would lead the U.
S. to withdraw military support. Blinken called the scenes from the weekend "horrific," reiterating the Biden administration's calls for Israel to investigate how the Rafah attack led to so many civilian deaths.
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