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US Says Hamas Solely to Blame for Resumption of Gaza Hostilities

Dorothy Shea, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, addresses a Security Council meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, US, March 18, 2025. (Reuters)
Dorothy Shea, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, addresses a Security Council meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, US, March 18, 2025. (Reuters)
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US Says Hamas Solely to Blame for Resumption of Gaza Hostilities

Dorothy Shea, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, addresses a Security Council meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, US, March 18, 2025. (Reuters)
Dorothy Shea, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, addresses a Security Council meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, US, March 18, 2025. (Reuters)

Responsibility for the resumption of hostilities in Gaza lies solely with Hamas, and the United States supports Israel in its next steps, the acting US ambassador to the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Ambassador Dorothy Shea made the statement to a United Nations Security Council briefing after Palestinian health authorities said Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza and killed more than 400 people, ending weeks of relative calm after talks to secure a permanent ceasefire stalled.

"The blame for the resumption of hostilities lies solely with Hamas," Shea said, charging that the group had refused every proposal and deadline to extend the ceasefire and allow time to negotiate a framework for a permanent ceasefire.

Shea said US President Donald Trump had made clear that Hamas must release the hostages it is holding immediately or pay a high price.

"We support Israel in its next steps," she said, while rejecting allegations that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were conducting indiscriminate attacks.

"The IDF is striking Hamas positions," she said. "It is well known that Hamas continues to use civilian infrastructure as launching pads, and the United States condemns this practice as should others."

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Pro-Türkiye Syria Groups Reduce Presence in Kurdish Area, Says Official

US-backed Kurdish fighters stand on their vehicles, as they withdraw from two neighborhoods in Syria's northern city of Aleppo as part of a deal with the Syrian central government, in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP)
US-backed Kurdish fighters stand on their vehicles, as they withdraw from two neighborhoods in Syria's northern city of Aleppo as part of a deal with the Syrian central government, in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP)
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Pro-Türkiye Syria Groups Reduce Presence in Kurdish Area, Says Official

US-backed Kurdish fighters stand on their vehicles, as they withdraw from two neighborhoods in Syria's northern city of Aleppo as part of a deal with the Syrian central government, in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP)
US-backed Kurdish fighters stand on their vehicles, as they withdraw from two neighborhoods in Syria's northern city of Aleppo as part of a deal with the Syrian central government, in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP)

Pro-Türkiye Syrian groups have scaled down their military presence in an historically Kurdish-majority area of the country's north which they have controlled since 2018, a Syrian defense ministry official said on Tuesday.

The move follows an agreement signed last month between Syria's new authorities and Kurdish officials that provides for the return of displaced Kurds, including tens of thousands who fled the Afrin region in 2018.

The pro-Ankara groups have "reduced their military presence and checkpoints" in Afrin, in Aleppo province, the official told AFP, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Their presence has been "maintained in the region for now", said the official, adding that authorities wanted to station them in army posts but these had been a regular target of Israeli strikes.

After opposition forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, the new authorities announced the disbanding of all armed groups and their integration into the new army, a move that should include pro-Türkiye groups who control swathes of northern Syria.

Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies carried out an offensive from January to March 2018 targeting Kurdish fighters in the Afrin area.

The United Nations has estimated that half of the enclave's 320,000 inhabitants fled during the offensive.

Last month, the Kurdish administration that controls swathes of northern and northeastern Syria struck a deal to integrate its civil and military institutions into those of the central government.

Syria's new leadership has been seeking to unify the country since the December overthrow of Assad after more than 13 years of civil war.

This month, Kurdish fighters withdrew from two neighborhoods of Aleppo as part of the deal.

Syrian Kurdish official Bedran Kurd said on X that the Aleppo city agreement "represents the first phase of a broader plan aimed at ensuring the safe return of the people of Afrin".

The autonomous Kurdish-led administration's military force, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, played a key role in the recapture of the last territory held by the ISIS group in Syria in 2019.