QUESTION: Joining me now is Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Mr. Secretary, thanks for joining us. So the U.S. stood alone at the UN Security Council on Friday to block the ceasefire, and the administration is sidestepping Congress to rush more weapons to Israel. You said this week there is, quote, a "gap between … the intent to protect [Palestinian] civilians, and the actual results that we're seeing on the ground" in Gaza. Can you describe that gap? What is Israel doing right now that you think does not demonstrate enough care or protection of Palestinian civilians?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Jake, we think there needs to be a premium put on protecting civilians and making sure that humanitarian assistance can get to everyone who needs it. And as I said, I think the intent is there, but the results are not always manifesting themselves. And we see that both in terms of civilian protection and humanitarian assistance. We want to make sure that as Israel continues this this campaign - because remember, they are dealing with a terrorist organization that engaged in the most vicious possible brutality on October 7th and has made clear that it would do it again and again and again if given the opportunity. So Israel needs to be able to deal with this, to protect itself, to prevent October 7th from happening again. But as it does that, it's imperative that civilians be protected. And here, the critical thing is to make sure that the military operations are designed around civilian protection and to focus on that.
When it comes to humanitarian assistance, we, as you know, made the argument many weeks ago to get humanitarian assistance in. It started to flow. We got it doubled during the humanitarian pause for the hostage releases that we helped to negotiate. But now what's critical is this: Even as Israel has taken additional steps - for example, to designate safe areas in the south; to focus on neighborhoods, not entire cities in terms of evacuating them - what we're not seeing sufficiently is a couple of things.
One, making sure that the humanitarian operators who are there, starting with the United Nations, performing heroically, that there are deconfliction times, places, and routes so that the humanitarians can bring the assistance that's getting into Gaza to the people who need it. Similarly, we need to see the same kind of deconfliction time, pauses, designated routes - plural, not just one - and clarity of communication so that people know when it is safe and where it is safe to move to get out of harm's way before they go back home. These are the kinds of things we're working on every single day, again, to make sure that that gap between intent and result is as narrow as possible.
QUESTION: The IDF told CNN - I believe Alex Marquardt - earlier today that they estimate they've killed about 7,000 Hamas fighters. When do you anticipate this phase of Israel's military campaign is going to end? Obviously, they can't kill every member of Hamas, and even if they did, 150,000 new ones would show up the next day. Are the Israelis telling you anything about when this phase is going to wrap up? Because obviously, the civilian death toll is mounting; it's unimaginable. Secretary Austin suggested that Israel might ultimately be facing a strategic defeat by chasing so many Palestinians into the arms of Hamas.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Jake, we have these discussions with Israel, including about the duration as well as how it's prosecuting this campaign against Hamas. These are decisions for Israel to make, but Hamas has decisions to make too. It could get out from hiding behind civilians tomorrow.
QUESTION: Right.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: It could put down its arms tomorrow, it could surrender tomorrow, and this would be over.
QUESTION: Right, obviously, but will the U.S. continue to back Israel the way it's backing Israel right now if this continues for months and months, as opposed to days or weeks?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Again, Israel has to make these decisions. Of course, everyone wants to see this campaign come to a close as quickly as possible. But any country faced with what Israel is facing, a terrorist organization that attacked it in the most horrific way possible on October 7th - and as I said, has said repeatedly that it would do it again and again and again - it has to get to the point where it is confident that that can't be repeated.
But you make another point that's very important. When the major military operation is over, this is not over, because we have to have a durable, sustainable peace, and we have to make sure that we're on the path to a durable, sustainable peace. From our perspective, I think from the perspective of many around the world, that has to lead to a Palestinian state. This is - we're not going to have durable peace, we're not going to have durable security for Israel unless and until Palestinian political aspirations are met. And of course, what happens the day after in Gaza itself once the military operation's - major military operation's over - that's also hugely important and urgent to make sure that governance, security, reconstruction, all of that is in place so that there's no vacuum.
