The Associated Press reports:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday pushed back against growing U.S. pressure for a “humanitarian pause” in the nearly month-old war to protect civilians and allow more aid into Gaza, insisting there would be no temporary cease-fire until the roughly 240 hostages held by Hamas are released.

The fact that the Biden administration is pressuring Israel to stop its offensive is a disgrace. You don’t get to start a war and then call time out when things go badly.

Alarm has grown over spiraling Palestinian deaths and deepening misery for civilians from weeks of Israeli bombardment and a widening ground assault that risks even greater casualties. Overwhelmed hospitals say they are nearing collapse, with medicine and fuel running low under the Israeli siege. About 1.5 million people in Gaza, or 70% of the population, have fled their homes, the U.N. said Friday.

So you’re saying it was a mistake to start the war, then?

But Netanyahu said he told Blinken that Israel was “going with full steam ahead,” unless hostages are released.

Hamas is using its allies to pressure Israel to stop fighting, when Hamas itself won’t make the slightest concession, even to the extent of releasing hostages.

In view of the horrific actions that Gazans have carried out, the most inhuman massacres of the 21st century, they have zero standing to complain about a “humanitarian crisis.” The humanitarian crisis was when they murdered, tortured, raped and burned alive Israeli men, women and children. What is happening now is the inevitable and proper consequence of the evil Gazans have done. Are Gazans now feeling sorry for their actions? Not sorry enough, evidently.