ATHENS 

It is “time to end the war” in Gaza, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.

“The effect has been that of the 15 steps that we urged action on, Israel has taken action either in implementing or being in the process of implementing 12 of the 15 steps,” Blinken said, referring to the letter he and Defense Secretary Llyod J. Austin sent to their Israeli counterparts a month ago, urging Israel to take steps to address the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.

According to Blinken, there are still three major issues that need to be addressed by Israel – allowing civilians to return to the areas from where they are displaced due to the Israeli operations; restoring commercial trucking; and extending pauses in Gaza for humanitarian aid to reach to needy civilians.

“And again, they have to be fully implemented, and they have to be sustained,” he added.

“Even with all of these steps, the situation is so difficult and so dramatic that to fully redress it, to fully answer the needs of people, the best way to do that is to end the war,” Blinken said.

He said that Israel, “by the standards it set itself, has accomplished the goals that it set for itself, (and) the strategic goals it set for itself,” adding: “So this should be a time to end the war.”

Blinken said that Israeli hostages should be safely returned home and a clear plan should be devised for Israel to withdraw from Gaza without allowing Hamas to return to administer in the enclave.

“But short of ending the war, which we believe now is the time to move to that, we have to see these humanitarian steps fully implemented, sustained, and as I said, particularly with regard to pauses having more extensive pauses,” he said.

Israel has continued its devastating offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023. The onslaught has killed more than 43,700 victims and rendered the enclave almost uninhabitable.

Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on Gaza.