Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday, met with United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Tel Aviv.
At the start of their meeting, President Herzog began by commenting on the terror attack that had occurred in Jerusalem shortly before.
President Herzog: "Once again, unfortunately as we are meeting now, there are casualties in a serious terror attack at the entrance to Jerusalem our capital. Two terrorists have attacked innocent civilians waiting to be picked up to go about their day, to go to work."
"We have casualties and loss of life and I would like to express my heartfelt condolences to the families and of course to pray for the swift recovery of the wounded.
"This is another example of the situation we’re in, the endless war that we are fighting against terror organisations, especially Hamas, in these very complicated and challenging times," he stressed.
Thanking Blinken for his support, Herzog continued, "We are working, praying for and demanding the immediate release of all hostages, and I thank the United States of America for the immense work it is devoting to the release of the hostages."
"There are still around 150 hostages who are in Hamas hands in Gaza. I would like to raise the plight of the Bibas family, the two young children, ten-month-old baby, four-year-old boy, and of course their parents. Their whereabouts are unknown to us and we are demanding their immediate release. It should be obvious that little toddlers will be released with their mother and hopefully with a father as soon as possible."
Praising the late Henry Kissinger as "a giant, a titan," Herzog praised Blinken as following in his footsteps. "We are big admirers of Henry Kissinger who laid down the foundations of so many great decisions and processes which he led, which brought results that we feel until today - peaceful results. He laid the cornerstone of the peace agreement which was later signed with an Egypt, and so many other processes around the world. I admired Henry Kissinger. In our last conversation he ended the call by saying, 'Mr. President, please know I've always loved and admired and supported the State of Israel.' And so I always felt his love and compassion for Israel and his belief in the Jewish state."
Blinken responded, "This is my fourth visit Israel since October 7. And, as you said, we're reminded yet again by the events in Jerusalem today of the threat from terrorism that Israel and Israelis face every single day. Like you, my heart goes out to the victims of this attack. ... We’re thinking of them, we’re thinking of their families, their loved ones, and we mourn their loss just as we mourn the loss of any innocent life."
"From day one, we have been focused on trying to secure the release of hostages from Gaza, from Hamas. And we have seen over the last week the very positive developments of hostages coming home and being reunited with their families, and that should continue today. It's also enabled the increase in humanitarian assistance to go to innocent civilians in Gaza who need it desperately. So this process is producing results. It's important and we hope that it can continue.
"At the same time I look forward to detailed conversations with the Government of Israel about the way ahead in Gaza. The United States firmly supports Israel and its right to defend itself and to try to ensure that October 7 never happens again."
He added, "You noted the passing of Henry Kissinger. Kissinger really set the standard for everyone who followed in in this job. I was very privileged to get his counsel many times including as recently as about a month ago. He was extraordinarily generous with his wisdom and his advice. Few people were better students of history. Even fewer people did more to shape history than Henry Kissinger. "