US Secretary of State Anthony Blanken Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged him to resume ceasefire talks to end the war in Gaza and push for more aid to be allowed into the Palestinian territory.
Blankenship arrived in Israel on Tuesday on his 11th trip to the Middle East since the war in Gaza began more than a year ago. It is his first visit to the region since Israel escalated its conflict with Hezbollah late last month.
The visit got off to an inauspicious start when Hezbollah fired medium-range missiles toward Tel Aviv, according to Israeli media, temporarily shutting down Ben Gurion Airport, where Blankenship landed.
At the meeting in Jerusalem, the US official pressed Netanyahu to “invest” in Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week to end the war in Gaza.
Blanken stressed the need to capitalize on Israel’s successful action to bring Yahya Sinwar to justice by “freeing all hostages and ending the Gaza conflict in a way that allows Israelis and Palestinians alike a sustainable Protection must be provided,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said after the talks.
Blanken “stressed the need for Israel to take additional steps to increase and sustain the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza and ensure that aid reaches civilians across Gaza,” Miller said.
Netanyahu’s office said Sinwar’s killing “could have a positive impact on the return of the hostages, the achievement of all the war’s goals and the next day of the war”.
But there was no mention of a possible cease-fire after a year of war in which Hamas’s military capabilities had been severely degraded and Gaza largely a pile of rubble, with the majority of its 2.3 million Palestinians homeless. Home is done.
The U.S. State Department said Blankenship and Netanyahu also discussed ways to implement a long-stale U.N. resolution passed in 2006 after the last Israel-Hezbollah war on the Israel-Lebanon border. will restore peace and security and allow citizens on both sides to return home.
But as Blanken met with Israeli leaders, Hezbollah refused to enter into negotiations with Israel while the fighting continued. Claimed responsibility for the drone attack hit Netanyahu’s vacation home on Saturday.
In his statement, Netanyahu also expressed the need for a change in the security and political situation in Lebanon that would allow Israelis to safely return to their homes that had been hit by Hezbollah rocket fire.
A change of strategy
Israel’s conflict with Iran-linked armed group Hezbollah in Lebanon has intensified in recent weeks after a year of cross-border fighting.
Earlier on Tuesday, Hezbollah said it fired rockets at two Israeli military bases near Tel Aviv, as well as a naval base in Haifa.
Israel declared a state of emergency in the Tel Aviv area and the country’s emergency service said one person was injured by falling shrapnel in the northern town of Magan Michael.
“This is the first time we have seen medium-range missiles being used by Hezbollah,” Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan said, reporting from Hasbiya in southern Lebanon.
“Just last week, Hezbollah said that they are going to change their strategy when it comes to dealing with Israel,” he noted, suggesting that the group may “repeatedly” carry out similar attacks in the future. Shows the possibility of launching medium-range weapons.
In Lebanon, the Ministry of Public Health reported that 18 people, including four children, were killed and at least 60 injured in a late-night Israeli attack near Rafik Hariri University Hospital in south Beirut.
Limited expectations.
Background of violence Visit to Blinken serves to convey the hope that his visit will result in a breakthrough.
“The tone of the rhetoric from Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government, as well as many others in the Israeli opposition, is defiant, so it’s an uphill battle at this stage,” said Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjom, reporting from Amman, Jordan. is.”
Saying this, former Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Bailon said he hoped the visit would at least “contribute to a ceasefire option”.
“It really is time to end this war. We are all paying a high price. We are all suffering,” he told Al Jazeera.
After Israel, Blanken will also visit Jordan on Wednesday to discuss humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip, an official on the plane with him said.