Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that he has rejected a plan put forward by Hamas for a multi-stage truce and hostage release, which would have effectively left the Palestinian militant group in power. Netanyahu made the comments shortly after meeting the visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
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00:00 So, we have been intensely focused from day one on getting the hostages, all the hostages,
00:07 back with their families where they belong.
00:10 And we will keep that focus until we get them back.
00:16 We had an opportunity today to discuss with the Israeli government the response that Hamas
00:21 sent last night to the proposal that the United States, Qatar, and Egypt had put together
00:29 to bring the remaining hostages home and extend the humanitarian pause.
00:34 What I can tell you about these discussions is that while there are some clear non-starters
00:39 in Hamas' response, we do think it creates space for agreement to be reached.
00:46 And we will work at that relentlessly until we get there.
00:50 We had extensive discussions with the Prime Minister and national security leaders on
00:54 the status of the military campaign to defeat Hamas and on the progress toward achieving
01:00 the fundamental objective of ensuring that October 7th never happens again.
01:04 At the same time, we're continuing to work closely with Israel and Lebanon on diplomatic
01:10 efforts to de-escalate tensions on Israel's northern border so that families can return
01:16 to their homes both in northern Israel and in southern Lebanon and live in peace and
01:21 security.
01:23 We also discussed the imperative of maximizing civilian protection and humanitarian aid to
01:29 address the ongoing suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
01:33 We were deeply concerned by the allegations that were made about the participation or
01:38 involvement of some of its employees in the – in October 7th.
01:42 And it's imperative that, as the UN has said it's doing, that there be a thorough
01:49 investigation, that there be clear accountability, and that there be clear measures put in place
01:56 to make sure that this can't happen again, that personnel working for it were not in
02:02 any way involved in terrorism or the events of October 7th.
02:09 We know that the work that UNRWA performs, the functions that it performs, have to be
02:18 preserved because so many lives are depending on it.
02:24 And so going forward, we're going to look to the actions that are taken.
02:28 And as I said, it's imperative that the functions be preserved.