Israel and the Iranian-backed terror group Hamas made headlines this week by signing a ceasefire agreement, something which Secretary of State Antony Blinken addressed during a press conference on Thursday.

However, Blinken was at one point forced to halt the briefing so that two protesters could be forcibly removed. 

Protester calls secretary of State a "monster"

According to the Associated Press, that disruption came as Blinken was describing the recent ceasefire, calling it "a moment of historic possibility for the region and well beyond."

"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 stated.

Before the secretary of State could continue, two individuals began shouting at Blinken and accusing him of being complicit in the deaths of Palestinian civilians.

Reporter @samhusseini was just physically dragged from Blinken’s briefing. “Why aren’t you at The Hague?” he asked. pic.twitter.com/Nvs10aFjgh

— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) January 16, 2025

One person jumped up and yelled that Blinken is a "monster" while another demanded to know why the secretary of State is not "in the Hague."

Secretary of state says there are "real differences" with Israel over Gaza war

The Hague is a city in the Netherlands which is home to the International Criminal Court, a venue where war criminals are prosecuted.

Both figures were eventually subdued and then taken out of the room by Diplomatic Security officers even as Blinken told them to "respect the process."

Once order was restored, Blinken stated that the United States has voiced "real differences" with Israel regarding how it has responded to the October 7 attack.

Yet the secretary of State stressed that while those concerns have been expressed "clearly at various points," those conversations have largely taken place behind closed doors.

Blinken did not want to embolden Hamas by publicly criticizing Israel

This was "precisely because we didn’t want to feed into Hamas' clearly held views that if that pressure was mounting, and if there was daylight, they could do nothing."

Specifically, Blinken felt that taking a more public stance might have resulted in Hamas refusing "to engage on the negotiations."

This could in turn have led to the terror group holding "back on a ceasefire and releasing the hostages, and thus perpetuate the suffering, the loss for the people that they purport to represent."