From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, June 11, 2024
Blinken tells Gaza donors that ceasefire is best way to address humanitarian crisis
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
Addressing an international donor conference for Gaza, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the most effective way countries can address the humanitarian crisis is by pushing on Hamas to accept Israel’s latest hostage deal proposal.
Blinken begins his speech by highlighting the dire situation in Gaza.
“More than a million people have been displaced from Rafah alone, in the last month alone – many of whom had already been uprooted multiple times.”
“Ninety-five percent of people there cannot access clean drinking water. Hunger is everywhere. Virtually everyone in Gaza depends on aid to survive. Most of Gaza’s sanitation system has been destroyed. Fewer than a dozen of Gaza’s 40 hospitals are open, and more than 270 humanitarian workers have been killed.”
“The single most effective step we can take to address the urgent humanitarian challenges in Gaza is to reach an immediate – and ultimately, enduring – ceasefire,” Blinken says.
“My primary and first message today to every government, to every multilateral institution, to every humanitarian organization that wants to relieve the massive suffering in Gaza: Get Hamas to take the deal. Press them publicly. Press them privately,” he adds.
Blinken then highlights the plight of Palestinian children in Gaza.
“Ten-year-old Abed lost his parents, his brother, and other family members. They were killed in an airstrike that was targeting terrorists. He said, ‘When my mom and dad were alive, I used to sleep. [Now] I can’t sleep anymore,'” Blinken says.
“There’s an acronym that has become increasingly common for children like Abed in Gaza: WCNSF — wounded child, no surviving family members.”
“Six-year-old Fadi has cystic fibrosis. When the conflict began, his parents could no longer get the food and medicine that he needed to remain healthy. Before he was evacuated to the United States from Gaza just last month, he was so severely malnourished that his legs could no longer support the weight of his body.”
“Eleven-year-old Dunya — she lost her parents, her brother, her sister when their home was struck in Khan Younis. She said this: ‘I lost my leg. I lost my family, but I still have dreams. I want to get a prosthetic leg. I want to travel. I want to become a doctor. I want for this war to end, and our children to live in peace.'”
“These three children – Abed, Fadi, Dunya – and all the Palestinian civilians suffering in Gaza, we know they’re not numbers. They’re not abstractions. They’re human beings. They’re children, they’re women, they’re men who all want the same things that we want for ourselves and for our loved ones, just like the people who were murdered in Israel on October 7th, just like the hostages who continue to be held in Gaza to this day,” Blinken says.
