“Our forces are charging forward,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Friday in an X post.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Israel the previous day that he hoped a ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization would last another day, echoing hopes from many that the deal was a signal that fighting would soon end. However, he noted that a Thursday morning attack at a bus stop in Jerusalem killed three Israeli civilians and wounded six others, including two Americans.
“Hamas has claimed responsibility for that attack,” said Blinken. “It called its perpetrators heroic.”
While the humanitarian pause was still in place, hostages were freed by Hamas.
President Joe Biden said Wednesday that American high school teacher Liat Beinin, a guide at Israel’s Holocaust Museum Yad Vashem, was one of them.
“Jill and I are deeply gratified that she will soon be reunited with her three children and her father, who have been wracked with worry for her safety,” said the president. “And we remain determined to secure the release of every person taken hostage by Hamas during its brutal terrorist assault on Israel on October 7, including Liat’s husband Aviv.”
Israel also released Palestinian prisoners, and humanitarian assistance was able to get into Gaza during the truce. There, civilians who were not able to evacuate have been in the crossfire of the war, which was prompted by a large-scale Oct. 7 attack carried out by Hamas. Blinken said Thursday that Netanyahu had made it clear that Israel intended to continue the war it declared on Hamas after that attack, which claimed more than 1,000 lives.
“We continue to fight with all our strength until we achieve all our goals: the return of all our abductees, the elimination of Hamas, and the promise that Gaza will never be a threat to Israel again. Shabbat Shalom,” Netanyahu said Friday.
“As we’ve said from the outset, Israel has the right to do everything it can to ensure that the slaughter Hamas carried out on October 7th can never be repeated,” said Blinken. “Hamas cannot remain in control of Gaza. It cannot retain the capacity to repeat that carnage.”
Going forward, U.S. officials support the goal of establishing a Palestinian state governed by a revamped Palestinian Authority. Blinken said this new authority should be put in place through free and fair elections and should effectively combat corruption, engage and empower civil society, support a free press and open media, and more.
For now, as war continues in Gaza, Blinken also said that “the way Israel defends itself matters,” and that it is imperative that Israel act in accordance with international humanitarian law and the laws of war, “even when confronting a terrorist group that respects neither.”
“Of course, we know that every one of these elements is made more complicated by the fact that Hamas intentionally embeds itself with civilians, within and below hospitals, schools, apartment buildings, refugee camps,” he said.
Still, Blinken said that Israel’s sophisticated military should be able to achieve its goals while minimizing harm to innocent civilians, for both moral reasons and Israel’s own security interests.
“We discussed the details of Israel’s ongoing planning, and I underscored the imperative to the United States that the massive loss of civilian life and displacement of the scale we saw in northern Gaza not be repeated in the south,” said the Secretary of State. “As I told the prime minister, intent matters, but so does the result.”
Blinken also said he raised concerns about tensions in the West Bank, “including extremist settler violence and proposals from parts of the Israeli coalition government to further expand settlements.”
At the same time, he said that Hamas could also lay down arms, renounce its goal of eliminating Israel and killing Jewish people, release the remainder of its hostages and stop using people in Gaza as human shields.
Biden said Thursday that the “United States is committed to addressing the critical humanitarian needs of Palestinian people in Gaza. And we will continue to work to sustain and expand the international response and rally the world to urgently increase support.”
CNN reported Friday that Qatar – a nation that played a key role in negotiations between Israel and Hamas – expressed regret and concern as the war continued.
“The continued bombing of the Gaza Strip in the first hours after the end of the truce complicates mediation efforts and exacerbates the humanitarian catastrophe in the Strip,” the Qatari foreign ministry said in a statement Friday, per the report. Qatar also demanded an immediate ceasefire.
Qatar isn’t alone in its hope for another truce. CNN also reported that Robert Mardini, director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross called the renewed warfare a “nightmare” for civilians in both Gaza and Israel.
There is some hope of another ceasefire, according to the outlet, as both sides continue to negotiate through mediators.
“There is an understanding that a Hamas list of captives deemed acceptable by Israel would bring back the truce, according to those sources,” CNN said. “Israel believes there are 20 women and two children under the age of 18 still being held hostage, the prime minister’s office said Friday, out of a total of 137 hostages.”
Blinken said that the U.S. is also working with Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab leaders to find a path towards lasting peace in the region.
“We have no illusions this is going to be easy,” but they are determined to keep working, he said.