US ‘always by your side’, Blinken tells Israel in war with Hamas

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed on a visit to Israel Thursday that the United States will “always” back it but said the Palestinians also have “legitimate aspirations” not represented by militant group Hamas.

The Islamist gunmen killed 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, and took about 150 hostages in their surprise onslaught Saturday. Israel has retaliated by raining air and artillery strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza for six days, claiming over 1,350 lives there.

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Israeli forces have prepared for a possible ground invasion of the Palestinian coastal territory after what has been labelled Israel’s 9/11.

“You may be strong enough on your own to defend yourself,” Blinken said at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “But as long as America exists, you will never, ever have to. We will always be there by your side.”

Israel in Gaza

Israel has levelled entire city blocks in Gaza and destroyed thousands of buildings, while Hamas has now fired more than 5,000 rockets at Israel, the army said.

US President Joe Biden has vowed unwavering support for Israel and not called for restraint against Hamas, but Blinken hinted at the need for an eventual peace settlement — an idea that has long met resistance from the right-wing Netanyahu.

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“Anyone who wants peace and justice must condemn Hamas’ reign of terror,” Blinken said.

“We know Hamas doesn’t represent the Palestinian people, or their legitimate aspirations to live with equal measures of security, freedom, justice, opportunity and dignity.”

Netanyahu voiced appreciation for US support, which includes military aid, and said that Hamas, which rules the blockaded Gaza Strip, should be treated like the Islamic State group.

“Just as ISIS was crushed, so too will Hamas be crushed. And Hamas should be treated exactly the way ISIS was treated,” Netanyahu said.

Blinken, speaking in personal terms, said that “I come before you not only as the United States secretary of state but also as a Jew” and “a husband and father of young children”.

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“It’s impossible for me to look at the photos of families killed, such as the mother, father and three small children murdered as they sheltered in their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, and not think of my own children,” he said.

‘Cycle of violence and horror’

Israeli army spokesman Richard Hecht said the military was readying for a potential order to launch a ground invasion in the war with Hamas: “This has not been decided yet… but we are preparing for a ground manoeuvre if it is decided.”

“Right now we are focused on taking out their senior leadership,” he told journalists.

Fears have grown for Gaza’s 2.4 million people now enduring the fifth war in 15 years in the long-blockaded territory, which has also seen Israel cut off water, food and power supplies.

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Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz vowed the total siege of Gaza would continue until the hostages are freed.

“Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electric switch will be turned on, no water tap will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home,” he said in a statement.

“The human misery caused by this escalation is abhorrent,” said the International Committee of the Red Cross Middle East chief Fabrizio Carboni, who stressed hospitals without electricity “risk turning into morgues”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres voiced concern about the “supercharged cycle of violence and horror”, urged the release of all hostages and the lifting of the siege, and stressed that “civilians must be protected at all times”.

There have been calls for a humanitarian corridor to allow Palestinians to escape ahead of a possible Israeli ground invasion that would spell brutal urban combat and house-to-house fighting.

If Israel does send ground forces into Gaza, it risks walking into a Hamas “trap”, warned a former head of Britain’s MI6 intelligence service, Alex Younger, speaking on BBC radio.

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“You shouldn’t do what your enemy wants you to do,” he said, arguing the inevitable loss of innocent life would further drive radicalisation and regional sentiment against Israel and its allies.

“These are all things that Hamas wants,” he said.

‘All I do is cry’

Israel has called up 300,000 reservists and rushed forces, tanks and heavy armour to the southern desert areas around Gaza from where Hamas launched their unprecedented attack on October 7.

Israeli soldiers have since then swept the southern towns and kibbutz communities and killed 1,500 of the militants, while making ever more shocking discoveries of large numbers of dead civilians.

“I would never have been able to imagine… something like this,” Doron Spielman, an Israeli army spokesman, said at one gated community where more than 100 residents were killed.

“It looks like… an atomic bomb just landed here.”

Israeli outrage has been further fuelled by Hamas’s capture of at least 150 hostages — mostly Israelis but also foreign and dual nationals — now being held in Gaza.

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“I know he’s out there somewhere,” one of the affected Israelis, Ausa Meir, said of her brother Michael, who is among the captives. “It’s very, very painful.”

Hamas has threatened to kill hostages if Israel bombs Gaza civilian targets without advance warning — deepening the anger and fear in shell-shocked Israel.

“Everybody is impacted in Israel,” said Joana Ouisman, 38, a finance executive. “I’ve been watching TV all day for the past three to four days. All I do is cry.”

‘We must win’

Israel’s war now flaring in the south is further complicated by a threat from the north, the Iran-backed Hezbollah group based in Lebanon.

Israel has massed tanks on the border after repeated clashes with Hezbollah in recent days, including cross-border rockets and shelling.

The United States has deployed an aircraft carrier battle group to the eastern Mediterranean in a show of support and warned Israel’s other enemies not to enter the conflict.

Israel’s arch foe Iran has long financially and militarily backed Hamas and praised its attack, but insists it had no involvement.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi argued that all Islamic and Arab countries must confront Israel and support the “oppressed Palestinian nation”, in a phone call with his Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad.

Israel also struck Syria’s two main airports, in Damascus and Aleppo, Syrian state media said, in “simultaneous” attacks on landing strips that put them out of service”, state media said, citing an unidentified military source.

Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on Syria, its northern neighbour, in recent years, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces and Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions.

Israel rarely comments on individual strikes on Syria but has repeatedly said it will not allow its biggest enemy Iran to expand its footprint there.