'We want every hostage to come home' says Blinken

AFP English

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urgeS an extension to a truce that has paused weeks of deadly fighting between Israel and Hamas and enabled aid to reach civilians in Gaza. The current truce is due to expire early Friday after a seven-day pause. "We want every hostage to come home," Blinken adds during a joint statement to the press with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.   Fighting began on October 7 when Hamas militants broke through Gaza's militarised border into Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 240, according to Israeli authorities. Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas and unleashed an air and ground military campaign that the Hamas government says has killed more than 15,000 people in Gaza, mostly civilians.

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00:00 This was the seventh day of the humanitarian pause, the seventh day of hostages coming

00:07 home to their loved ones.

00:10 And I know that for Israel, for the United States, for a number of other countries around

00:14 the world who have their citizens being held hostage by Hamas, we want every hostage to

00:24 come home.

00:25 And so we look to see if this can continue.

00:30 Certainly that would be a good thing.

00:31 It's also allowed much more humanitarian assistance to get in to the Gazans who need it.

00:40 But it's going to be up to Hamas whether they will continue to do this.

00:44 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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