The ultimatum to Hamas is telling: Sign the U.S.-backed ceasefire deal or the people of Gaza will continue to starve. Secretary of State Antony Blinken didn’t put it in those terms, but what he did say to reporters in Israel on Aug. 19 adds up to as much. The fastest way to get humanitarian relief for Palestinians in Gaza is for Hamas to sign the ceasefire deal, even though it practically guarantees the continuation of Israeli military repression of the population. By putting the onus on Hamas, Blinken completely avoided acknowledging that Israel is responsible for the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
Regarding the humanitarian situation, Blinken claimed that the U.S. was working with Israel to address the polio threat, but more broadly he presented the ceasefire deal as the solution to everything else. “[T]here are very, very important issues that continue to need to be resolved in order for people to get the assistance they desperately need, whether it’s—whether it’s food, whether it’s medicine, whether it’s appropriate shelter, whether it’s dealing with things like treating the sewage that’s accumulated throughout Gaza and that promotes an acute—that presents an acute health hazard, that’s an incubator for disease,” he said. “All of that was very much on my agenda today. I had a detailed discussion with the defense minister, with the head of the military on steps that need to be taken—must be taken—to continue to try to improve the situation for Palestinians in Gaza.”
He claimed that “the quickest way to do that in the most robust way possible would be through the ceasefire, because that opens up much more space to surge assistance into people and then to build something that’s genuinely sustainable.”
