US Wary Hamas May Take Advantage of the Pause

All along, you've been very clear about concerns that a broader ceasefire would only benefit Hamas. Sullivan was pretty clear yesterday in saying that Hamas has been able to gain some benefit from this. How concerned are you that the longer this truce lasts, now six days, that Hamas will benefit? And how do you weigh that? It's a real risk. You have to expect a group like Hamas, a terrorist group, which clearly doesn't abide by laws of war, will try to take advantage of any pause in the fighting for their own benefit. So we're watching that closely, as well as our Israeli counterparts. You can bet that they're watching that closely. And I don't want to speak for the Israelis, but this is a calculated risk that Prime Minister Netanyahu and his war cabinet are willing to take in order to get those hostages out. So it's a balance. And as you've also heard the Israelis say, that once the pauses are over, they intend to go right back at military operations. And when you say that Hamas has been able to get some benefit so far, is that restocking, resupplying? What is that benefit? I would just say that, without getting into intelligence issues, that any pause in the fighting could benefit your enemy in terms of time to refit, to rest your fighters, to rearm them, reequip them. A pause in the fighting can be seen as a benefit. But again, I want to stress – and this was always part of the calculus. Any discussion of pauses was always part of the calculus, that Hamas might try to benefit from it. But so, too, have the Israeli people benefited by the return of their loved ones and hostages. So, too, have the American people benefited now with little Abigail back with her family. So again, it's a balance. And again, I won't speak for the Israeli Defense Forces, but when they have – when these pauses are over, then they have made it very clear that they're going to continue to target Hamas leadership.