Blinken: Gaza scenes are 'gut-wrenching'

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken today described the aggression on Gaza as “gut-wrenching” and said what was needed was a Palestinian state “that gives people what they want and works with Israel to be effective”, Reuters reports.

“The suffering we are seeing among innocent men, women and children, breaks my heart,” he said in a speech at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos. “The question is what is to be done.”

He said the US has taken steps to improve access to humanitarian aid in Gaza, get better protection for civilians and “impressed upon Israel its responsibility to do that”, adding that steps had been taken by Israel as a result of this pressure by America.

“That in no way shape or form, takes away from the tragedy we’ve seen and continue to see.”

The US has vetoed three UN Security Councils calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, claiming Israel is continuing its genocidal bombing campaign in the besieged enclave in self-defence following the Palestinian resistance’s surprise cross border infiltration of Israeli towns and villages on 7 October.

“We could be wrong about the judgements we are making,” Blinken told attendees in Davos.

“I think the biggest poison we face, around the world, internally in our societies and externally is dehumanisation… one of our challenges is to fight that dehumanisation.”

READ: Blinken says path to Palestinian state can isolate Iran