After intensive meetings in Tokyo, top diplomats from the Group of Seven leading industrial democracies announced a unified front on the Israel-Hamas conflict on Wednesday, condemning Hamas and supporting Israel’s right to self-defense.
The statement, hammered out by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and foreign ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and Italy, said: “All parties must allow unimpeded humanitarian support for civilians, including food, water, medical care, fuel and shelter, and access for humanitarian workers.” “We are in favor of humanitarian pauses and corridors to allow civilian movement, the release of hostages, and desperately needed assistance.”
The G7 meeting was an attempt, in part, to contain the worsening humanitarian crisis while also preventing wider disagreements on Gaza from escalating. It came “at a very intense time for our countries and for the world,” according to Blinken, who added that “G7 unity is stronger and more important than ever.”
The ministers noted that the G7 is “working intensively to prevent the conflict from escalating further and spreading more widely,” and also using sanctions and other measures “to deny Hamas the ability to raise and use funds to carry out atrocities.”
They also condemned “the rise in extremist settler violence committed against Palestinians,” which they said is “unacceptable, undermines security in the West Bank, and threatens prospects for a lasting peace.”
Israel said its troops were battling Hamas militants deep inside Gaza City, which was home to some 650,000 people before the war and where the Israel military says Hamas has its central command and a vast labyrinth of tunnels.
The growing numbers making their way south point to an increasingly desperate situation in and around Gaza’s largest city, which has come under heavy Israeli bombardment.
Looking ahead to after the war, Blinken said, “key elements should include no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.
Besides the monthlong conflict in Gaza, which followed Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in Israel in which militants killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and captured 242, the G7 envoys dealt with a flurry of other crises, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs and China’s growing aggression in territorial disputes with its neighbors.
There has also been a push for cooperation to combat pandemics, synthetic opioids, and threats from the misuse of artificial intelligence.
Since before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the G7 has held together in defense of the international order that originally emerged after the destruction of World War II.
Despite some fraying around the edges, the group has preserved a unified front in condemning and opposing Russia’s invasion.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said that G7 foreign ministers “strongly condemned North Korea’s repeated ballistic missile launches as well as arms transfers from North Korea to Russia, which directly violate relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions.”
