Blinken Says Hamas Is Responsible for Resumption of Fighting

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken blamed Hamas for the broken truce on Friday and said that he was already seeing signs that Israel had taken new steps to protect civilians as it resumed its military campaign.

Speaking just before his departure from Dubai at the end of a two-day Middle East visit, Mr. Blinken said it was “important to understand why the pause came to an end: It came to an end because of Hamas. Hamas reneged on commitments it made.”

One of the country’s most popular radio and television entertainers, who uses the stage name Arthur (real name Jacques Essebag), shocked many fans when he revealed that he had been living under guard since the day after the Hamas attacks. “This is France in 2023. I live in Paris and I have agents protecting me and my family because I’m Jewish. It’s crazy, no?” he said.

Blinken Says Hamas Is Responsible for Resumption of Fighting

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken blamed Hamas for the broken truce on Friday and said that he was already seeing signs that Israel had taken new steps to protect civilians as it resumed its military campaign.

Speaking just before his departure from Dubai at the end of a two-day Middle East visit, Mr. Blinken said it was “important to understand why the pause came to an end: It came to an end because of Hamas. Hamas reneged on commitments it made.”

Rape Is Not Resistance: Women's Rights in a Post-Oct. 7 World

On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, raped, gang raped, murdered, and mutilated women and girls in front of their friends and parents, shot them in cold blood, and then set their bodies ablaze. Women and girls were also abducted to the Gaza Strip with videos capturing their continued sexual abuse as they were paraded through the streets, bleeding and broken. These atrocities were filmed by the terrorists on body cameras and then broadcast across the world on social media channels and apps, moments after being perpetrated.

Yet, in the days and weeks following Oct. 7, the decision of international women's rights organizations to acknowledge and condemn the acts of sexual violence committed by Hamas, or not, revealed an astonishing and upsetting chasm amongst the ranks of those allegedly championing the cause of global gender equality. The most prominent example of silence was given to us by UN Women, which failed to make a direct statement condemning the rape committed by Hamas terrorists, or to explicitly name Israeli women as victims of sexual violence in this war.