U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sits across the table as he meets with former Israel Defense Forces chief Gadi Eisenkot and former Israeli defense minister Benny Gantz in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024.Mark Schiefelbein/The Associated Press
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken left the Middle East on Thursday with public divisions between the United States and Israel at perhaps their worst level since Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza began in October.
Wrapping up a four-nation Mideast trip – his fifth to the region since the conflict erupted – Mr. Blinken was returning to Washington after getting a virtual slap in the face from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said the war would continue until Israel is completely victorious and appeared to reject outright a response from Hamas to a proposed ceasefire plan.
Relations between Israel and its main international ally, the United States, have been tense for months, but Mr. Netanyahu’s public dismissal of a plan the U.S. says has merit, at least as a starting point for further negotiation, highlighted the divide.
Yet Mr. Blinken and other U.S. officials said they remained optimistic that progress could be made on their main goals of improving humanitarian conditions for Palestinians civilians, securing the release of hostages held by Hamas, preparing for a post-conflict Gaza and preventing the war from spreading.
Officials said Mr. Blinken’s optimism was based on his first four post-Oct. 7 trips to the Middle East. None of those visits resulted in immediate visible successes, but they brought limited but significant improvements in the delivery of humanitarian aid and a week-long ceasefire in November in which scores of hostages were released.
“Clearly there are things that Hamas sent back that are absolute non-starters,” Mr. Blinken said of the response the militant group delivered Tuesday to a ceasefire and hostage release proposal that was endorsed last month by Egypt, Qatar, the U.S. and Israel itself.
“But, at the same time, we see space to continue to pursue an agreement,” Mr. Blinken said late Wednesday. “And these things are always negotiations. It’s not flipping a light switch. It’s not ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ There’s invariably back and forth.”
Shortly before Mr. Blinken spoke, though, Mr. Netanyahu took direct aim at the Hamas response, calling it “delusional” and vowing that Israel would fight on to achieve “absolute victory” over the militant group, no matter what.
Compounding Mr. Blinken’s dilemma, Mr. Netanyahu also appeared to dismiss concerns from the U.S. and others about expanding Israel’s military operations in southern Gaza, particularly in Rafah, the area on the Egyptian border to which over a million Palestinians have fled.
“On all of my previous visits here and pretty much every day in between, we have pressed Israel in concrete ways to strengthen civilian protection, to get more assistance to those who need it. And over the past four months, Israel has taken important steps to do just that,” he said. “And yet … the daily toll that its military operations continue to take on innocent civilians remains too high.”
Mr. Netanyahu also called for the dismantlement of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which is the main distributor of international assistance to Gaza, because of its alleged hostility toward Israel and allegations that a dozen of its employees took part in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that ignited the war.
The U.S. and other donor nations have suspended new assistance to UNRWA pending completion of a UN investigation into the allegations, but Mr. Blinken has nonetheless said the agency’s role is critical to getting desperately needed humanitarian supplies into Gaza.
Mr. Blinken appealed to Mr. Netanyahu and other Israelis still reeling from the Hamas attack not to allow vengeance to dictate their continued response.
“Israelis were dehumanized in the most horrific way on Oct. 7,” he said. “And the hostages have been dehumanized every day since. But that cannot be a license to dehumanize others.”
Mr. Blinken came to Israel just hours after the receipt of the Hamas counterproposal to the framework ceasefire agreement put forward late last month. That proposal includes a three-phase plan to de-escalate the conflict.
In Qatar on Tuesday, both Qatar’s prime minister and Mr. Blinken said the proposal had promise as a starting point for further negotiation.
And Mr. Blinken talked up Saudi Arabia’s interest in normalizing relations with Israel, provided the Gaza war ends and the Palestinians are given a clear, credible and time-bound pathway to an independent state.
“We remain determined as well to pursue a diplomatic path to a just and lasting peace, and security for all in the region, and notably for Israel,” Mr. Blinken said in Tel Aviv.
However, Mr. Netanyahu is opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state and has said Israel will maintain open-ended security control over Gaza.
But in a sign the diplomacy is not over yet, a Hamas delegation led by senior official Khalil Al-Hayya arrived in Cairo on Thursday for ceasefire talks with mediators Egypt and Qatar.
The Hamas delegation is expected to meet officials including Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, Egyptian security sources said.
Speaking in Nicosia, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Egypt was working with all stakeholders to find an end to the conflict, and urged the international community to apply more pressure to let aid reach Gaza.
Jordan’s King Abdullah also embarked on a diplomatic mission to Western capitals, due to meet U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is trying to broker a deal that could bring some respite in Israel’s war against Hamas, which is entering its fifth month after unleashing vast destruction, killing more than 27,000 Palestinians and displacing much of the territory’s population.
The Associated Press
Israeli forces bombed areas in the southern border city of Rafah on Thursday where more than half of Gaza’s population is sheltering.
Gazans are desperately hoping a ceasefire could arrive in time to head off threatened Israeli assault on Rafah, hard against Gaza’s southern border fence, now home to over a million people, many of them in makeshift tents.
An Israeli operation in Rafah without due consideration for the plight of civilians would be “a disaster”, said White House spokesperson John Kirby, adding “we would not support it.”
Israeli planes bombed parts of the city on Thursday morning, residents said, killing at least 11 people in strikes on two houses. Tanks also shelled some areas in eastern Rafah, intensifying the residents’ fears of an imminent ground assault.
Mourners wept over bodies of those killed in an air strike that hit the Tel Al-Sultan neighbourhood. The corpses were laid out in white shrouds. A man carried the body of a small child in a black bag.
“Suddenly in a blink of an eye, rockets fell on children, women, and elderly men. What for? Why? Because of the upcoming ceasefire? Usually before any ceasefire this happens,” said resident Mohammed Abu Habib.
Emad, 55, a father of six sheltering in Rafah after fleeing his home elsewhere, said the greatest fear was a ground assault with nowhere left to run: “We have our backs to the (border) fence and faces toward the Mediterranean. Where should we go?”
Israel says it takes steps to avoid civilian casualties and accuses Hamas militants of hiding among civilians, including at school shelters and hospitals, leading to more civilian deaths. Hamas has denied this.
Aid agencies have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe if Israel follows through on its threat to enter Rafah, one of the last remaining areas of the Gaza Strip that its troops have not moved into, where people are desperate for shelter.
“We’re living in a place meant for animals,” said Umm Mahdi Hanoon, standing among the cages of a chicken coop where her family is now living with four other families. “Imagine a child sleeping in a chicken crate … sometimes we wish the morning won’t come.”
The death toll of the Israel-Hamas war has now reached over 27,000 people, four months since it began, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. In the midst of chaos and displacement, the voices of Palestinian families paint a stark picture of the human cost of the conflict.
The Associated Press
Israel’s military said on Thursday that over the past day its troops had killed more than 20 militants in Gaza’s main southern city Khan Younis, now site of some of the war’s most intense fighting. It has made similar claims daily, which cannot be independently confirmed, since launching an operation to storm the city last month.
Khan Younis is the hometown of Hamas’ Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the Oct. 7 killing and kidnapping spree.
A senior Israeli officer said the military believed he was hiding there.
The military also said it had apprehended dozens of suspected militants. Seventy-one detainees arrested earlier were released.
Gaza’s health ministry says at least 27,840 Palestinians have been confirmed killed, and more than 67,000 injured since the conflict began.
The Israeli bombardment continued in Khan Younis and Deir-Al-Balah in central Gaza overnight, killing a Palestinian television journalist, Nafez Abdel-Jawwad, and his son.
Residents and militants also reported gun battles in Gaza City in the north, where fighting has resurged although Israel claimed to have subdued the area months ago.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. aid agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, said on X the agency had been denied access to bring food to areas where people are on the verge of famine.
U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk said the Israeli military was bulldozing civilian infrastructure to create a buffer zone inside Gaza’s border fence, which he said may be a war crime. A senior Israeli military official denied this: “Our operations along the border are aimed at exposing tunnels. This is not related to a buffer zone at this time.”
The United States said it was aware of reports that two Americans in Gaza were detained by Israeli forces and was seeking more information.
With files from Reuters.