Secretary of State Antony Blinken's final, raucous briefing at the State Department focused heavily on the recent ceasefire agreement struck between Israel and Hamas when it was not being disrupted by attendees.
Blinken described the department as "going at a full sprint" in the final days of President Joe Biden's administration, working to implement the recently confirmed peace deal before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Monday.
"I am confident and we expect that implementation will begin on Sunday," Blinken told the crowd.
The briefing was repeatedly disrupted by journalists shouting down Blinken from the audience as the secretary assured attendees that he would answer questions after his speech.
"Why have you allowed my friends to be massacred?" one reporter shouted toward the beginning of the event before being hauled out.
The person accused the Biden administration of raising the "white flag before" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and asked Blinken, "How does it feel to have your legacy be genocide?"
Another journalist interrupted Blinken later in the speech before being escorted out, claiming that he was told his questions would not be answered. Blinken repeatedly rebuffed that assertion with assurances that all questions would be acknowledged after his remarks.
"Criminals!" the attendee yelled as he was physically removed from the briefing. "Why aren't you in the Hague!"
Blinken called the ceasefire deal "a moment of tremendous relief for Israelis and Palestinians alike" after over a year of stalled progress and failed negotiations.
He blamed the complexity of the geopolitical situation in the Middle East for the long timeline that led to the deal and acknowledged that many lives could have been saved had the end of belligerence been reached earlier.
"Do I wish that we could have gotten the ceasefire months ago? Of course," Blinken said. "The suffering since, the lives lost since, sure, could have been avoided if we'd gotten this over the line sooner."
The address took an optimistic tone on the future, however, claiming that the agreement provides a "historic possibility for the region and well beyond,” including the eventual creation of a Palestinian state.
“It’s going to take tremendous effort, political courage, compromise to realize that possibility, to try to ensure that the gains that have been achieved over the past 15 months at enormous, excruciating cost are actually enduring,” Blinken told reporters.
While the cessation of hostilities is a welcomed development among all parties, it is yet to be seen how permanent the negotiated peace will be.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Blinken himself has acknowledged that Israel's attacks on Gaza have propelled widespread recruitment into Hamas that rivals the number of terrorists killed in the Israeli military's post-Oct. 7, 2023, operations.
Long-term peace and the establishment of a sustainable Palestinian state would require extensive rebuilding, security infrastructure, and assurances that the proposed country would not seek to reignite a war with its neighbor.