Blinken: US and world pressure on Israel caused Hamas to reject hostage deals

Blinken said he believed Hamas wanted to forestall a hostage and ceasefire deal to expand the conflict from Israel and Gaza to Iran and its terror proxy groups. 

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told The New York Times that world pressure on Israel harmed hostage release deals and encouraged Hamas to repeatedly reject them while laying the blame at Israel’s feet.

Blinken described how public international pressure on Israel motivated Hamas to back off from hostage deals.

“Whenever there has been public daylight between the United States and Israel and the perception that pressure was growing on Israel, we’ve seen it: Hamas has pulled back from agreeing to a ceasefire and the release of hostages.”

Blinken said he believed Hamas wanted to forestall a hostage and ceasefire deal to expand the conflict from Israel and Gaza to Iran and its terror proxy groups.

Blinken said, “Hamas, when they saw Israel under pressure publicly, they pulled back. The other thing that got Hamas to pull back was their belief, their hope that there would be a wider conflict, that Hezbollah would attack Israel, that Iran would attack Israel, that other actors would attack Israel, and that Israel would have its hands full. Hamas could continue what it was doing. So we’ve worked very hard to make sure that that didn’t happen.”

When the New York Times interviewer alleged that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu created obstacles to a hostage release deal in July, Blinken refuted the claim and defended Netanyahu.

Blinken said, “What we’ve seen time and again is Hamas not concluding a deal that it should have concluded. There have been times when actions that Israel has taken have, yes, made it more difficult. But there’s been a rationale for those actions.”

The outgoing Secretary of State said it was “astounding” that world opinion focused on blaming Israel for the lack of a hostage agreement and ceasefire rather than Hamas.

Blinken explained, “One of the things that I found a little astounding … you hear virtually nothing from anyone since Oct. 7 about Hamas.”

He added, “Why there hasn’t been a unanimous chorus around the world for Hamas to put down its weapons, to give up the hostages, to surrender — I don’t know what the answer is to that. Israel, on various occasions has offered safe passage to Hamas’s leadership and fighters out of Gaza. Where is the world?”