“We will not stop working until we bring every hostage back home to their families and loved ones,” said the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken in a press conference he gave in Tel Aviv after meetings he had with Israeli and Palestinian officials in Israel and the occupied West Bank, underlining at the same time that it is Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas while respecting the rules of law.

As Anthony Blinken said during his meeting with the Israeli president, Benjamin Netanyahu made it clear to him during their meeting that “Israel intends to resume military operations against Hamas.”

The American minister commented during the press conference that Israel “he has the right to do what he can to ensure” that the Hamas attacks of October 7 will never be repeated.

“Hamas cannot maintain control of Gaza”, he said. But he emphasized that “it matters how Israel defends itself,” adding that it is “urgent” Israel to behave “in accordance with international law and the laws of war”.

In his meetings with Netanyahu and senior Israeli officials “made it clear that before Israel resumed major military operations, must implement humanitarian civil protection plans that minimize further loss of innocent Palestinians” Blinken pointed out and continued:

“This means taking more effective measures to protect civilian life, including by clearly and precisely identifying areas and points in southern and central Gaza where they can be safe and out of the line of fire. It means avoiding further significant civilian movements within Gaza. It means avoiding damage to critical infrastructure such as hospitals, power plants, such as water facilities, and it means giving civilians displaced in southern Gaza the option to return to the north as soon as conditions permit. All of this can be done in a way that still allows Israel to achieve its goals.” emphasized the American Secretary of State.

Israel “has an obligation” and is capable of “neutralize the threat posed by Hamas while minimizing harm to innocent men, women and children,” said Blinken characteristically.

The US secretary of state also said that Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet “agreed with the need for this approach”. THE “mass loss of civilians” and displacement of a scale seen in northern Gaza cannot be replicated in the south. “The intention matters, but so does the result” Blinken said.

The American president also stated that the US has helped “significantly” to increase the level of humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza as the number of trucks carrying food, water, medicine and fuel entering Gaza more than doubled in the past week.