U.S. demands Israel conclude war with Hamas by year end, Politico reports

The U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, emphasized this timeline during his visit to Israel this week. However, Deputy National Security Advisor Jonathan Finer stated that the White House is not imposing strict deadlines on Israel to conclude the military operation in the Gaza Strip.

Nevertheless, when Israeli officials presented their plans to the chief American diplomat, stating that combat actions in southern Gaza would last several months, Blinken reportedly responded sharply: "You don’t have that much credit." Yet, Israeli leaders are willing to go into overdraft.

On conditions of anonymity, a senior Israeli official stated that the U.S. advised Israel against entering Gaza.

"We went into Gaza because that was the only way we could destroy Hamas and free our hostages. They told us, don’t go into the terror tunnels. But if we don’t go into the terror tunnels, there’s no way we can destroy Hamas. They told us not to go into the hospitals despite them being used by Hamas as command and control centers, but we went into those hospitals, and we did what we needed to do. And we’ll do what we need to do to reach decisive victory," he stated.

The Israel war

On October 7, Hamas militants attacked Israel. During the attack, the terrorists killed and kidnapped not only military personnel but also civilians. Specifically, Israel was regularly shelled from the Gaza Strip. Tel Aviv, in turn, initiated operations against terrorists and engaged in offensive activities in the Gaza Strip.

Temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began on November 24. At that time, the parties agreed to cease fire for four days, but decided to extend it for another two days on the condition that the militants would release more hostages.

On December 1, Israel resumed military operations in the Gaza Strip, stating that Hamas violated the ceasefire terms.