Today (Thursday), the Wall Street Journal quoted American officials as saying that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken informed officials in the Israeli war government last week that the administration of US President Joe Biden believes that the conflict should end within weeks, not months, according to “ Arab World News Agency.

The American officials, who were not named by the newspaper, said that Israeli officials expressed to Blinken their interest in returning to normal life so that the country would not be exposed to an economic blow, but at the same time they did not provide guarantees about the duration of the conflict.

According to the newspaper, an American official said that there is a realization among everyone that the longer this war lasts, the more difficult it will become for everyone.

On the other hand, Blinken said in statements to the American CNN network today that the Palestinian Hamas movement has chosen to end the process of releasing detainees, and said that it must choose to launch this process again.

The network quoted Blinken as saying: “What is clear to me, and what is clear to US President Joe Biden... the choice is in the hands of (Hamas), it has stopped the release of the hostages. “It has backed away from its commitments to Israel and to everyone else involved.”

At the same time, Blinken saw that Israel is taking important steps to provide better protection for civilians in the southern Gaza Strip, and that Israeli forces are responding to his call to act differently in this phase of the war with Hamas than they did in northern Gaza, according to what the American network reported.