Blinken: 'Gap' in Israel's Intent to Protect Civilians

Facts

• Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that there remains a gap between Tel Aviv's 'intent to protect civilians' and the results on the ground in Gaza, adding that Israel is obligated 'to do everything possible to put a premium on protecting civilians and maximizing humanitarian assistance.'¹
• Since the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas ended a week ago, Israel has ramped up bombings on the Gaza Strip, killing and displacing hundreds of residents. The US had called on Israel to avoid civilian casualties.²
• Blinken's comments come after reports that at least 17K Palestinians have been killed and more than 46K injured in Israel's military offensive against Hamas since Oct. 7 [according to officials in Gaza].³
• Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Friday that 'civilization is on the verge of collapse' after intense urban warfare continued on Friday throughout the Gaza Strip's major cities, with street battles being fought in Khan Younis and Jabaliya.⁴
• Although Israel has designated Muwasi — a small piece of largely underdeveloped land along Gaza's coastline — as a safe zone for displaced Palestinians, the UN and locals describe it as an unsafe makeshift tent camp with squalid conditions.⁵
• This comes after the UN Security Council met Friday for a vote on an Arab-backed resolution calling for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza — which the US vetoed — following UN chief Antonio Guterres' invoking of Article 99.⁶

Sources: ¹Aa (a), ²Reuters, ³Aa (b), ⁴Euronews, ⁵Associated Press and ⁶BBC News.

Narratives

• Pro-Israel narrative, as provided by Jerusalem post. Though this has been a tragic war, Israel can't allow Hamas to survive. Hamas seized upon last week's temporary pause to mark Israeli positions and prepare itself for continued attacks on Israeli forces in Gaza. Indeed, the pace at which Israeli forces maneuvered in Gaza threw Hamas' military leadership off-kilter. Israel will have to work intelligently in its campaign in the south of the strip to fully eliminate the terrorist group so it can never launch an attack like Oct. 7 again.
• Pro-Palestine narrative, as provided by Middle east eye. Israel continues to demonstrate that its war isn't against Hamas but against the Palestinian people as a whole. Nowhere in Gaza is safe, and Israel has effectively rendered the north of the strip unlivable. Unfortunately, the temporary ceasefire only gave civilians a few days of relative rest, and now Israel has returned to killing Palestinians at an unprecedented rate. The US, Israel's biggest ally, must exert more pressure to end the war.

Predictions