As US Secretary of State John Kerry shuttled through the Middle East to discuss how to bring and end to the war in Gaza, US officials voiced support for a longer-term plan, beyond a cease-fire, to exit the cycle of conflict between Israel and Hamas, the third in just six years.
"There has to be some way forward that does not involve Hamas having the ability to continue to rain down rockets on Israeli civilians," US deputy national security adviser Antony Blinken told NPR’s "Morning Edition" July 23. "One of the results, one would hope, of a cease-fire would be some form of demilitarization, so that … this doesn't … repeat itself."