Blinken: U.S. won't back Rafah incursion without credible plan for civilian protection

we are learning more about the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza as thousands are fleeing what was once a safe Zone the southern city of Rafa the challenges facing the Biden Administration from a diplomatic standpoint continue to grow too although the US supports Israel's right to retaliate against Hamas for the brutal October 7th attack that killed more than 1200 people there are deep concerns about the Palestinian death toll as even prime minister Netanyahu conceded that his forces have in fact killed more civilians than members of Hamas We Begin this morning with Secretary of State Anthony blinkin who joins us from the state department good morning Mr secretary I know military experts say Gaza is as complicated and challenging a battlefield as any Modern Warfare has seen But back in December President Biden said Israel conducted indiscriminate bombing in February he said Israel's offensive was over the top and then this past week he was asked on CNN about pausing the delivery of 3500 bombs here's what he said civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers I made it clear that if they go into Rafa I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafa to deal with the cities to deal with that problem Mr secretary is is Israel living up to International humanitarian law standards well first Mark good morning uh the report that uh that we put out uh lays out some of the concerns that we've had throughout this period when it comes to humanitarian assistance particularly the early months after October 7th uh and when it comes to the uh use of weapons uh concerns about incidents where uh given the totality of the uh damage that's been done to children women men it was reasonable to assess that in certain instances Israel acted in ways that are not consistent with International humanitarian law it's also critical to note that Israel itself has accountability processes uh to get at this there are hundreds of ongoing uh inquiries looking at different incidents that have taken place since October 7th uh there are criminal investigations uh that are going forward unlike most other countries in the world Israel has uh the ability uh the means uh and the the actions to uh to self-correct but we've been on this every single day so you have been able then to conclude that Israel has violated us laws and weapon sharing agreements no we've concluded is in the case of uh the the use of weapons as you said this is an extraordinarily complex uh military environment in which you have an enemy Hamas that committed the most atrocious terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7th and then retreats to Gaza hides behind and underneath civilians in hospitals schools mosques apartment buildings uh and that makes it very difficult to determine particularly in the in the midst of War uh exactly what happened and to draw any final conclusions from any one incident so we have a number of incidents that we continue to look at to try to get the best possible assessment the Israelis themselves are doing the same thing yeah our assessments will be ongoing uh but as I said given the totality of uh what we've seen in terms ter of Civilian suffering in terms of children women uh men caught in this Crossfire of Hamas is making uh who've been killed or been injured it's reasonable to assess that in a number of instances Israel has not acted in a manner that's consistent with International humanitarian law so so I understand you're still collecting evidence but on the policy um can you clarify because even the lead Democrat on house armed services says it's not clear is the US slowing down the Del of any weapons to Israel at this point beyond the 3500 socaled dumb bombs as you know Margaret most of the population from Gaza displaced from the north and from Central Gaza has gone to Rafa there about 1.4 million people there and we said to Israel that we cannot will not support an operation in Rafa a major military operation in the absence of a credible plan to protect civilians and they still haven't delivered it so so are you slowing the delivery of any weapons Beyond these 35 500 bombs are you pausing uh for example uh Precision Munitions as some Republicans have answer to that the answer to that is no what the president said and what he's been clear about in private conversations with the Israelis which unfortunately uh leaked to the Press so the president responded forthrightly when he was asked about it um but what we've uh been clear about is that if Israel launches this major military operation into Rafa uh then uh there are certain systems that we're not going to be supporting and supplying uh for that operation but at present uh the only thing that we've delayed um and are holding back are these high payload bombs because we're in an ongoing conversation with Israel given the impact that those weapons can have when they're used in densely populated uh areas including are like Rafa so we're in an active conversation with Israel about that we have real concerns about the way they're used um but here's something else that's critically important Margaret uh We Believe two things one you have to have uh a clear credible plan to protect civilians which we haven't seen second we also need to see a plan for what happens after this conflict in Gaza is open is over and we still haven't seen that because what are we seeing right now we're seeing parts of Gaza that Israel has has cleared of Hamas where Hamas is coming back including in the north including in conun um as we look at uh at Rafa they may go in and have some initial success but at but potentially at an incredibly high cost to civilians but one that is not durable one that's not sustainable and they will be left holding the bag on an enduring Insurgency because a lot of armed hos will be left no matter what they do in Rafa or if they if they leave and get out of Gaza as we believe they need to do uh then you're going to have a vacuum and a vacuum that's likely to be filled by chaos by Anarchy and ultimately by Hamas again yeah so we've been working for many uh many weeks on De incredible plans for security for governance for rebuilding we haven't seen that come from Israel we've been uh working with Arab countries and others on that plan we need to see that too we have the same objective as Israel we want to make sure that Hamas cannot govern Gaza again we want to make sure it's demilitarized we want to make sure that Israel gets its leaders uh that's what we're determined we have a different way and we think a more effective uh durable way of getting that done we remain in conversation with Israel about exactly that Mr secretary your National security memorandum that you signed says Israeli civilian harm mitigation efforts are quote inconsistent in effective and inadequate the Prime Minister himself said Israel assesses the IDF killed 14,000 terrorists and 16,000 civilians does the US share the Israeli assessment that more civilians have been killed than actual terrorists yes we do and I think the report makes clear that while Israel has processes procedures rules regulations to try to minimize civilian harm given the impact that this operation this war in Gaza has had on the civilian population and yet you're still surging those have not been those have not been applied consistently uh and and and effectively there's a gap between the stated intent and some of the result we've seen but because it's so complicated in the midst of a war and particularly in the midst of a war where you have an enemy that hides in civilian infrastructure hides behind civilians to make Final determinations on these individual incidents uh we're looking at the totality of what's happened we think it's reasonable to assess based on what's happened that there have been uh acts that have been inconsistent with Israel's obligations under International humanitarian law but we haven't drawn definitive conclusions we need to pursue these investigations uh just as Israel is doing itself Mr secretary thank you for your time this morning thanks Margaret

Channel: CBS News

Views: 14,772

Keywords: Antony Blinken, Hamas, Israel, Gaza Strip, Face The Nation, World

Id: tZq6nTPhnAU

Length: 8min 25sec (505 seconds)

Published: Mon May 13 2024