(AFP) – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday to seize on the killing of Hamas’s leader to work towards a Gaza ceasefire. Blinken also pressed for more aid to be allowed into the Palestinian territory as concerns rise for tens of thousands of civilians trapped by fighting in the hard-to-reach north.
Blinken “underscored the need to capitalise on Israel’s successful action to bring Yahya Sinwar to justice by securing the release of all hostages and ending the conflict in Gaza in a way that provides lasting security for Israelis and Palestinians alike,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said after the talks in Jerusalem. Blinken also “emphasised the need for Israel to take additional steps to increase and sustain the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza and ensure that assistance reaches civilians throughout Gaza,” Miller said.
The trip comes little more than a week after the United States threatened to withhold some US aid without progress in delivering assistance to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where the United Nations has described a catastrophic situation. Blinken is paying his 11th visit to the region since the unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, which prompted a relentless Israeli military operation in Gaza.
With the US election just two weeks away, President Joe Biden asked Blinken to return to press for progress, seeing new hope after Israel’s killing of Sinwar, the October 7 mastermind who was described by US officials as intransigent in negotiations. Blinken on previous trips has sought to prevent the conflict from escalating into a regional war.
But Israel since last month has been striking across Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah, which like Hamas is backed by Iran’s clerical rulers. Miller said Blinken again called for a “diplomatic resolution” in Lebanon and compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 1701 of 2006, which called for the long-term disarmament of Hezbollah but also a withdrawal of Israeli forces from its northern neighbour.
© 2024 AFP
