US envoy to UN says blame for renewed Gaza fighting ‘lies solely with Hamas’

The US envoy to the United Nations tells the Security Council that blame for last night’s resumption of Israeli strikes in Gaza “lies solely with Hamas.”

Interim Ambassador Dorothy Shea says the terror group has “steadfastly refused every proposal and deadline they’ve been presented over the past few weeks, including a bridge proposal to extend the ceasefire beyond Ramadan and Passover to allow time to negotiate a framework for a permanent ceasefire.”

Hamas has insisted on sticking to the original terms of the deal, which was supposed to enter its second phase at the beginning of the month. That phase envisioned Israel fully withdrawing from Gaza and agreeing to permanently end the war in exchange for the release of the remaining living hostages. While Israel signed on to the deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long insisted that Israel will not end the war until Hamas’s governing and military capabilities have been destroyed.

Accordingly, Israel refused to even hold talks regarding the terms of phase two, which were supposed to begin on February 3.

Instead, it pushed for an extension of phase one — which concluded on March 1 — through additional hostage releases. The US adopted this approach, and special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff’s bridge proposal sought to do just that. Witkoff said Sunday that Hamas’s response to the proposal was a nonstarter.

Hamas instead offered on Friday to release the five remaining American hostages, in line with what it discussed during direct talks with US hostage Adam Boehler. But the terror group didn’t give a firm answer then, and those talks collapsed after Israel leaked them to the press, leading the Trump administration to abandon the framework by the time Hamas come around to it, a senior Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel.

In her address to one of the Security Council’s countless sessions on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Shea rejects the allegation that Israel is indiscriminately bombing Gazans.

“The IDF is striking Hamas positions. It is well known that Hamas continues to use civilian infrastructure as launching pads, and the United States condemns this practice, as should others,” she says.

“President Trump has made clear that Hamas must release the hostages immediately or pay a high price, and we support Israel in its next steps,” Shea says.

She asserts that Iran is behind all of the region’s instability, adding that countries in the Middle East “have an historic opportunity to reshape their region in a way that affords all its people a better path forward. Stronger ties between Israel and its neighbors offer an alternative.”