Meet the Press: Antony Blinken

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Good morning, Kristen. Good to be with you.

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Well, first Kristen, we've been working on this from day one, engaged with different partners in the region, sending clear messages about the need to immediately and unconditionally release all of the hostages. And it was gratifying to see that Judith and Natalie Raanan were released yesterday. I had a chance to speak to them as well. They were -- they sounded strong of mind, strong of spirit. But there remain many others. And we're hopeful that more are released, but the bottom line is this: They need to be released. Each and every one of them, now, unconditionally.

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Well, action is what speaks, not words, particularly coming from Hamas. But we've been engaged, as I said, with partners. So one of the first things that I did after the horrific attack of October 7th and hostages were taken -- men, women, young children, elderly people, it's extraordinary -- was to talk to everyone we could who might have influence with Hamas in terms of releasing them. In the instance of Judith and Natalie, I again want to thank the government of Qatar for playing a very important role in getting them out and now on their way home to see their loved ones.

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I can't. We don't know why Hamas chose to release Natalie and Judith first. And I use the word "first" advisedly because again, we're hopeful that more follow. I can't speak to that. What I can speak to is our incessant efforts from day one to try to get people home, to try to get them out of Gaza back with their families and loved ones. That is continuing as we speak. This is something we're engaged in virtually around the clock.

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Well, Kristen, we don't know. As you said, we've got ten unaccounted for Americans. We believe that some significant number are hostages. But, you know, what's happening is -- and it just underscores the horror -- Israel continues to discover, uncover people who were killed, who were slaughtered, and I use that term very advisedly, slaughtered on October 7th. So what we don't know for sure is whether some of the unaccounted for are dead and have simply not been uncovered yet, or whether they're hostage. But we -- we have a pretty strong idea that some number of the ten at least are being held in Gaza by Hamas.

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Kristen, let's first step back a second and put this in perspective. The attack of October 7th; the slaughtering of men, women, children; the rocketing of Israel that continues to this day, no country -- no country could accept that. And so Israel has not only the right, as we said, but the obligation to defend itself. We are not in the business of second guessing what they're doing. We are talking to them on a regular basis about how they do it. It's vitally important that every measure be taken to protect civilians, that humanitarian assistance gets in to people who are caught in this cross fire of Hamas' making. And of course both of us want to make sure that the many hostages who've been taken come home. And that's why we're working on it, as I said, virtually every minute of the day. But these are decisions that Israel has to make. We can give our best advice, our best judgment, again, about how they do it and also how best to achieve the results that they're seeking.

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So this is something that we've also been working on from -- virtually from the beginning. When I was in Israel, and throughout the region as you mentioned a little while ago, one of the things that I was very focused on was making sure that people in Gaza, innocent people who are caught in this through no fault of their own, in this cross fire of Hamas' making, get the assistance they need, whether it's food, whether it's medicine, whether it's water. And so we were able to --

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So -

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-- in short, yes. Two things. First, there are multiple pipelines. Israel turned back on one of the pipelines about six or seven days ago. So that was an important step. There are a couple of other pipelines that we'd like to see restored in addition. Water is coming in. As you mentioned we had the first 20 trucks of assistance come in. That includes water. We're getting more that we hope will be moving as early as today. In fact, we were just told that some of the convoys have started to move again and are moving as we speak. At the same time, there are other things that need to happen. There are desalination plants that need to be powered in order to make sure that the water people are drinking is clean. We do have concerns about the spread of disease as a result of people drinking dirty water. All of these things are very much part of what we're doing, again, every day to try to make sure that Palestinians have the assistance they need. We appointed a very senior diplomat, David Satterfield, to be on the ground every day working to make sure the humanitarian aid that people need is getting there. And this is a work in progress. It's something we're at all the time.

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One thing's for sure. Israel cannot go back to the status quo. And again, no country would be able to accept that.

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No country would want to go back --

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I think we know two things. We can't go back to the status quo. They can't go back to the status quo with Hamas being in a position in terms of its governance of Gaza to repeat what it did. At the same time, what I've heard from the Israeli's is absolutely no intent, no desire to be running Gaza themselves. They moved out of Gaza unilaterally, unconditionally a couple of decades ago. But they can't be in a position where they're constantly at the threat of the most horrific terrorist attacks coming from Gaza. So something needs to be found that ensures that Hamas can't do this again, but that also doesn't revert to Israeli governance of Gaza, which they do not want and do not intend to do. There are different -- there are different ideas out there about what could follow. But all of that, I think, needs to be worked. And it's something that needs to be worked even as Israel is dealing with the current threat.

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We are concerned. In fact, we expect that there's a likelihood of escalation, escalation by Iranian proxies directed against our forces, directed against our personnel. We are taking steps to make sure that we can effectively defend our people and respond decisively if we need to. This is not what we want, not what we're looking for. We don't want escalation.

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We don't want to see a second or third front develop. We don't want to see our forces or our personnel come under fire. But if that happens, we're ready for it.

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The Israelis have been very clear with us. And we share this view. No one wants a second or third front, including when it comes to Lebanon -- northern Israel, southern Lebanon. That's not in anyone's interest. And that's exactly why we've sent a very strong message to try to deter Hezbollah, deter Iran more directly, from opening up a second front. You've heard the president speak to this very clearly. He has put countries and non-state actors on warning, "Don't take advantage of the situation." We've also deployed very significant assets to the region, two aircraft carrier battle groups, not to provoke, but to deter, to make clear that if anyone tries to do anything, we're there. So my expectation is that, again, it's coming from us, coming from Israel. No one is looking for that second front.

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We -- we need to see the continuation of strong bipartisan support for both Ukraine and for Israel. We have two friends who are under attack in different ways. But you heard the president speak very powerfully, very eloquently to this the other night, speaking to the American people. We know that if we let would-be aggressors act with impunity, whether it's a state like Russia, whether it's terrorists like Hamas, we open a Pandora's Box for other aggressors around the world to try to get away with the same thing. So we have to stand strongly with our friends. We have to stand strongly with both Ukraine and with Israel. We have to be looking out for the people of Gaza who are caught in this cross fire. The supplemental budget request, the money the president asked Congress for, would do just that. It gives us the assistance that Ukraine needs, that Israel needs, and also that the people of Gaza needs with a lot of humanitarian aid. So we need Congress. And we need it to move forward on the strong bipartisan basis we've already seen when it comes to supporting both Ukraine and Israel, and I hope the people of Gaza.

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Thanks, Kristen.

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