Blinken rebuffs Arab leaders' push for Gaza ceasefire

The Star

Arab leaders publicly pressed the U.S. secretary of state to secure an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.   In a rare open display of disagreement, Antony Blinken pushed back as he stood next to his Jordanian and Egyptian counterparts at a press conference.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00 We need to focus now on stopping this war.

00:02 Arab leaders publicly pressed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday

00:07 to secure an immediate ceasefire in Gaza,

00:11 but in a rare open display of disagreement,

00:14 the top US diplomat pushed back.

00:16 It's our view that a ceasefire now

00:21 would simply leave Hamas in place,

00:25 able to regroup and repeat what it did on October 7th.

00:30 Blinken met the Saudi, Qatari, Emirati, Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers in Amman.

00:36 He said all were agreed on the need for peace

00:39 and that the current status quo in Gaza could not hold.

00:43 Blinken, who met with Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu a day earlier,

00:47 said Israel "must take every possible measure to prevent civilian casualties."

00:53 Protecting civilians will help prevent Hamas from further exploiting the situation.

00:58 But most important, it's simply the right and moral thing to do.

01:02 Earlier on Saturday, Palestinian witnesses said Israel hit a UN-run school in Jabalia, Gaza,

01:09 which was serving as a shelter.

01:11 The Israeli military said that according to a preliminary inquiry,

01:15 it had not targeted the location,

01:17 but that the strike may have been the result of fire aimed at another target.

01:22 Reuters footage of the aftermath showed broken furniture,

01:25 patches of blood on the ground and people crying.

01:28 One Gazan boy said he had carried dead bodies.

01:32 I carried a body and another decapitated body with my own hands.

01:36 Israel's defense minister said its forces had destroyed communication hubs,

01:45 bunkers and tunnel networks over the past two days

01:49 and that 12 Hamas commanders had been killed since the start of the war.

01:54 World and regional powers have failed to reach any consensus

01:57 on how to deal with the escalating conflict in the four weeks since fighters from Hamas,

02:02 which runs the Gaza Strip, burst over the border,

02:05 killing 1,400 people and taking more than 240 others hostage.

02:10 Israel has since struck Gaza from the air, imposed a siege and launched a ground assault,

02:17 stirring global alarm at humanitarian conditions in the enclave,

02:20 Gaza health officials said on Saturday,

02:23 killing more than 9,488 Palestinians.

02:27 For more UN videos visit: www.un.org/webcast

02:33 Thanks for watching!

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