US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said part of the motivation for Hamas' latest attack on Israel may have been disrupting a potential normalizing of Israel-Saudi Arabia ties and added Washington will announce new assistance for Israel on Sunday.
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Hamas fighters rampaged through Israeli towns as the country suffered its bloodiest day in decades on Saturday and battered Palestinians with air strikes in Gaza on Sunday, with hundreds reportedly killed on both sides. The spiraling violence threatens a major new Middle East war.
The attack by Hamas launched at dawn on Saturday represented the biggest and deadliest incursion into Israel since Egypt and Syria launched a sudden assault in an effort to reclaim lost territory in the Yom Kippur war 50 years ago.
"It wouldn't be a surprise that part of the motivation may have been to disrupt efforts to bring Saudi Arabia and Israel together, along with other countries that may be interested in normalizing relations with Israel," Blinken told CNN in an interview on Sunday.
Hamas said on Saturday the attack was driven by what it called escalated Israeli attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, Jerusalem and against Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month he believed his country was on the cusp of peace with Saudi Arabia, predicting it could reshape the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam's two holiest shrines, has long insisted on the Palestinians' right to statehood as a condition of recognizing Israel - something that many members of Netanyahu's nationalist religious coalition have long resisted.
The United States said on Sunday that Saudi-Israel normalization efforts should continue despite the latest attack.
"We think it would be in both countries' interests to continue to pursue this possibility," US Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer told Fox News Sunday.
Blinken added the United States has also taken note of reports of several Americans killed and kidnapped in Israel and Washington is looking to verify the details and figures.
"We have reports that several Americans were killed. We're working overtime to verify that," Blinken said.
The White House said on Sunday US President Joe Biden was briefed by his national security team about the situation in Israel and that Biden had "directed additional support for Israel."
The secretary of state also said details of new US assistance for Israel will be made public later on Sunday, as he labeled the attack on Israel as a "terrorist attack by a terrorist organization."
Blinken added there was relative calm on Sunday in most of Israel but intense fighting in Gaza. He added that there was not yet any evidence seen by the United States of Iran being behind the latest attack in Israel but he noted the long-standing ties between Iran and Hamas, which governs Gaza.
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