‘We Need to Do More to Protect Palestinian Civilians,’ Blinken Says

We need to do more to protect Palestinian civilians. We’ve been clear that as Israel conducts this campaign to defeat Hamas, how it does so matters. It matters because it’s the right and lawful thing to do. It matters because failure to do so plays into the hands of Hamas and other terror groups. There will be no partners for peace if they’re consumed by humanitarian catastrophe and alienated by any perceived indifference to their plight. Hamas doesn’t care one second or one iota for the welfare, for the well-being of the Palestinian people. It cynically and monstrously uses them as human shields, putting its commanders and command posts, its weapons and ammunition within or beneath residential buildings, schools, mosques, hospitals. But civilians should not suffer the consequences for its inhumanity and its brutality. We provided Israel advice that only the best of friends can offer on how to minimize civilian deaths while still achieving its objectives of finding and finishing Hamas terrorists and their infrastructure of violence.