Blinken To The Rescue?
“Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken arrived in a seething Middle East on Friday, meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the start of a delicate diplomatic mission to reaffirm U.S. support for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza while pressing its leaders to do more to protect Palestinian civilians.
With Israel’s ground forces pushing closer to Gaza’s largest city and its airstrikes killing and wounding more Palestinians every day, anger is rising across the region even as Mr. Blinken tries to keep Israel’s adversaries from broadening the war. Strikes have escalated across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the armed group Hezbollah, was scheduled to deliver a widely anticipated speech on Friday that could offer clues as to whether the group will intensify its battle with Israel.
The U.S. stance on Israel’s war in Gaza has shifted over the past three weeks. While President Biden continues to declare unambiguous support for Israel, saying the country has a right to defend itself, concern has been growing within his administration about the mounting Palestinian death toll and worsening humanitarian conditions due to Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas that killed some 1,400 people.
The Gazan health ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government, says that more than 9,000 people have been killed in the territory, provoking outrage around the world. Gaza is also dangerously low on food, fuel and water after Israel cut off access to those necessities.
In meetings with Mr. Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders in Tel Aviv on Friday, Mr. Blinken was expected to push what American officials call “humanitarian pauses” in military operations against Hamas in Gaza. Mr. Netanyahu paused the operations last month to enable the release of two American hostages held in the territory, Judith Raanan, 59, and her daughter, Natalie Raanan, 17.
Mr. Blinken said he would discuss with Israeli leaders “concrete steps” that the Biden administration believed Israel should take to reduce the number of Palestinian civilians killed and injured in its air and ground campaign. He is expected to speak to reporters later on Friday.
Pauses in the fighting would allow for humanitarian aid to be distributed and more people to exit Gaza through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt. The first several hundred people, were allowed to leave this week.
Mr. Blinken said he would also discuss with Israeli leaders and others in the region the importance of getting more aid into Gaza. About 50 to 60 trucks with aid are now entering Gaza each day but that needs to increase, he said.
From Israel, Mr. Blinken will travel to Amman, Jordan, for talks with the country’s leaders and other regional partners about securing the release of the more than 200 hostages taken by Hamas in its attacks, as well as about preventing the conflict from escalating in the West Bank and along the Israel-Lebanon border.
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