MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell sat down with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Tel Aviv Wednesday, where she pressed him on Israel’s timetable for pulling back on its bombing campaign in Gaza.

“That is the fourth time you will have been in Israel when you consider that October seventh,” Mitchell said. “You might have said from the beginning that that bloodbath needed to be replied to, that Israel needed to invade. Now it has been a hundred days. It’s 23,000 Palestinian civilian lives, according to reports. The hostages, 134, six American citizens integrated, were there for all this time. Issues have changed. Doesn’t Israel now ought to wind this down? Isn’t that what you want?”

“All of us want to see this battle finish as quickly as that you can imagine,” Blinken commenced. “All of us want to see the struggling, people who find themselves caught within the center, finish as quick as that you can imagine. It’s crucial that Israel be capable of do the whole lot conceivable to make sure October 7th by no means happens once more. And it’s made good growth toward that goal.”

Mitchell endured, “You say they made vital development. But, but, an important minister, [Yoav] Gallant, stated they’re about to attack Khan Yunis within the south very strongly. There are folks there who haven’t even been moved again to the north.”

Blinken answered:

So, we’ve viewed now a phase down of the operations within the north. That’s important. We have considered the withdrawal of a significant choice of Israeli forces that had been in Gaza, specifically, again, in the north the place they’ve executed rather a lot. As I said, we wish to see this battle come to an finish as quickly as conceivable in line with Israel’s function of to ensure that October seventh doesn’t happen once more.

And as they’re completing that effort, we wish to do everything we presumably can to extend protections for civilians, to make sure that humanitarian assistance is going in and getting to people who need it, and that’s what we’re working on relentlessly daily.

And of course, the hostages. I had an opportunity to satisfy with the households once more. I met with a lot of them, virtually all of them earlier than on a couple of occasions, including with president Biden. For them, these three months were an eternity. Day by day, each hour, every minute appears like an eternity. So, we’re also relentlessly enthusiastic about bringing them residence.

Watch the clip above by way of MSNBC.

The put up ‘Doesn’t Israel Have To Wind This Down?’ Andrea Mitchell Presses Blinken On Endured Civilian Deaths in Gaza first seemed on Mediaite.