Blinken in Israel, UN to vote on Gaza cease-fire
Published on: Saturday, March 23, 2024
By: AFP
Palestinians walk in front of a house damaged in Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Inset: Antony Blinken
GAZA STRIP: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Israel Friday for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, ahead of a UN Security Council vote on a US draft resolution noting the need for an “immediate” ceasefire that would allow in more aid.
Washington announced it would submit for a vote on Friday its draft on the necessity of an “immediate ceasefire as part of a hostage deal”, after repeatedly using its veto power to block earlier ceasefire resolutions.
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Shortly after arriving in Tel Aviv, following talks in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Blinken began talks with Netanyahu. Pressure on the Israeli leader from Washington and other allies has intensified over Israel’s war against Hamas militants in Gaza.
Israel said on Friday it was continuing military operations for a fifth day in and around Al-Shifa hospital, the largest medical facility in a besieged territory where most hospitals are no longer functioning, according to the United Nations.
The United States, which provides Israel with billions of dollars in military assistance, has become increasingly vocal about the impact of the nearly six-month war on civilians in Gaza.
Israel has vowed to send troops into Gaza’s southernmost point, Rafah, against Hamas militants there.
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With most of Gaza’s population sheltering in the area along the Egyptian border, the prospect has provoked widespread international alarm.
During his tour, Blinken said a ground offensive in Rafah would be “a mistake”.
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“There is no place for the civilians amassed in Rafah to get out of harm’s way,” he said in Cairo.
“There is a better way to deal with the ongoing threat posed by Hamas.”
The European Union’s 27 leaders on Thursday also urged against a Rafah ground operation, saying it “would worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian situation”.
The head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, David Barnea, was set to meet CIA chief William Burns, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel for further truce talks in Qatar’s capital Doha.
The effort hinges on the release of hostages held by Hamas militants in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody and the delivery of more aid to Gaza, where 2.4 million people are living under imminent threat of famine.
Blinken said in Cairo on Thursday that “gaps are narrowing” and Washington was “continuing to push for an agreement in Doha”.
“It’s difficult to get there, but I believe it is still possible,” Blinken said on his sixth trip to the region since the war began with Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.
A Hamas official said Israel’s response to the group’s latest proposal had been “largely negative”.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel has carried out a relentless bombardment alongside a ground invasion, killing at least 31,988 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory says.
Hours before the Security Council meeting, Britain and Australia issued a statement stressing the “urgency of an immediate cessation of fighting in Gaza to allow aid to flow and hostages to be released”.
EU leaders also appealed for an “immediate humanitarian pause” at a meeting in Brussels on Thursday.
Israel’s military said on Friday that it had killed more than 150 militants “in the area of” Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital since the start of its operation on Monday.
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