Toll from Israeli army action in Gaza is still 'too high': Blinken

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the toll from Israel's military offensive on Gaza's civilians remains "too high".

Blinken made the comments Wednesday as he was in the region seeking to broker a cease-fire that would pause the fighting.

Blinken said the Israeli offensive, launched in response to a deadly Hamas cross-border attack on Oct. 7, is "fully justified".

But he expressed concern about the effects of the offensive on Gaza civilians. Thousands of civilians have been killed in the fighting, and the offensive has displaced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and led to a humanitarian crisis.

 

As I told the prime minister and other Israeli officials, the daily toll that its military operations continue to take on innocent civilians remains too high, Blinken said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday rejected Hamas' terms for a cease-fire and hostage-release agreement, vowing to continue the war until absolute victory and dismissing any arrangement that leaves the militant group in full or partial control of Gaza.

Netanyahu's remarks, made as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in the region to try to broker a cease-fire deal, signaled that the painstaking diplomacy could be derailed. The comments also underscored how wide the chasm between Israel and Hamas remains as the war enters its fifth month.

Netanyahu said military pressure was the best way to free the roughly 100 hostages held in captivity in the Gaza Strip, where they were taken after Hamas' cross-border rampage into southern Israel on Oct. 7, which sparked the war.

The prime minister was responding to a detailed, three-phase plan by Hamas that would unfold over 4 1/2 months. The plan, which came as a response to a proposal drawn up by the United States, Israel, Qatar and Egypt, stipulates that all hostages would be released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, including senior militants, and an end to the war.

Israel has made destroying Hamas' governing and military abilities one of its wartime objectives, and Hamas' proposal would effectively leave it in power in Gaza and allow it to rebuild its military capabilities.

Surrendering to Hamas' delusional demands that we heard now not only won't lead to freeing the captives, it will just invite another massacre, Netanyahu said in a nationally televised evening news conference.

Following Netanyahu's remarks, Hamas official Osama Hamdan said a delegation would travel to Cairo for more talks, a sign that the negotiations would continue.

Blinken, who was in the region for the fifth time since the war erupted, is trying to advance the cease-fire talks while pushing for a larger postwar settlement in which Saudi Arabia would normalize relations with Israel in return for a clear, credible, time-bound path to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

But the increasingly unpopular Netanyahu is opposed to Palestinian statehood, and his hawkish governing coalition could collapse if he is seen as making too many concessions.

Earlier, Blinken told Israel's ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog that a lot of work" remains in bringing the sides toward an agreement. Blinken was scheduled to give a news conference later Wednesday.