Israel: Blockade Will Not Be Lifted Until All Hostages Are Freed

Facts

• After Israel announced a 'complete siege' on Gaza in response to the attack launched by Hamas over the weekend, Israel's energy minister said on Thursday that the blockade would not be lifted until all Israeli hostages are freed.¹
• Some 150 people are believed to have been taken hostage by Hamas in Gaza. A number of officials — including Turkish Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and members of the International Committee of the Red Cross — are reportedly in negotiations with the group in an attempt to secure the hostages' release.²
• 'Humanitarian aid to Gaza?' Israel Katz, the Israeli energy minister, said on X, formerly known as Twitter. 'No electrical switch will be turned on, no water pump will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home. Humanitarianism for humanitarianism. And no one can preach morality to us.'³
• The comments come after Gaza's only power station ran out of fuel on Wednesday, leaving only generators with a limited power supply. Amid an extensive bombing campaign of the territory, the lack of electricity is expected to place an additional burden on hospitals that are consistently under-supplied but are even more so recently.⁴
• Katz's comments also came as US Sec. of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv where he gave a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Blinken said that the US 'has Israel's back' and will continue to support the country in their efforts to defend themselves. However, he cautioned: 'As the prime minister and I discussed, how Israel does this matters.'⁵
• 'We democracies distinguish ourselves from terrorists by striving for a different standard, even when it's difficult, and holding ourselves to account only falls short,' Blinken said. 'That's why it's so important to take every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians. And that's why we mourn the loss of every innocent life.'⁵

Sources: ¹BBC News, ²TRT World, ³The Times of Israel, ⁴Associated Press and ⁵The Messenger.

Narratives

• Pro-Israel narrative, as provided by The Times of Israel. Following the scale of atrocities carried out by Hamas in Israel, Tel Aviv has every right to defend itself from terrorists, including taking proactive actions in Gaza to ensure these kinds of catastrophic attacks never happen again. Israel will not rest until the Hamas threat is eliminated.
• Pro-Palestine narrative, as provided by Associated Press. The actions carried out by Israel are not singling out Hamas alone, but are exacting a collective punishment on Palestinians as a whole. An already-impoverished population of 2.3M people is now facing a humanitarian catastrophe of an epic scale.

Predictions