In Israel, Blinken set to push Netanyahu for sustained aid into Gaza
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 [May 01, 2024]
By Humeyra Pamuk
TEL AVIV (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, pushing to get more aid
into Gaza, while urging Hamas to accept a deal that would halt fighting
in the enclave and bring Israeli hostages home.
Following visits to Riyadh and Amman earlier this week, the top U.S.
diplomat is now in Israel for a series of meetings on the final stop of
his Middle East tour.
It is Blinken's seventh visit to the region which was plunged into
conflict on Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked Israel.
Illustrating the trip's humanitarian focus, Blinken is set to visit
Ashdod port in southern Israel, which has recently started receiving aid
for Gaza. He will ask Israel's government to take a set of specific
steps to facilitate aid to Gaza, where nearly half the population is
suffering catastrophic hunger.
He met Netanyahu alone at his office ahead of a wider meeting that will
include other senior Israeli officials and U.S. diplomats.
"Even as we're working with relentless determination to get the
ceasefire that brings the hostages home, we also have to be focused on
people in Gaza for suffering in this crossfire of Hamas' making,"
Blinken said in remarks at the start of his meeting with Israeli
President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv.
"Focused on getting them the assistance they need, the food, and
medicine, the water or shelter is also very much on our minds," Blinken
said.
Among the steps that needed to be taken, Blinken said on Tuesday, was to
secure enough drivers and trucks within Gaza so aid distribution is done
effectively. He also said a clear list of items needed to be identified
so there are no "arbitrary" denials of aid shipments.
Blinken has urged Hamas to accept an "extraordinarily generous" truce
deal proposed by Egyptian mediators, which would see 33 Israeli hostages
released in exchange for a larger number of Palestinian prisoners and a
halt to the fighting, with the possibility of further steps towards a
comprehensive deal later.
A senior official for Hamas, which has yet to respond to the proposals,
said the group was still studying the proposed deal but he accused
Blinken of failing to respect both sides and said the real obstacle to
an agreement was Israel.
"Blinken's comments contradict reality," Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.
"Even the Israeli negotiating team admitted Netanyahu was the one who
was hindering reaching an agreement."
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Israeli President
Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv, Israel, May 1, 2024. REUTERS/Evelyn
Hockstein/Pool
ASSAULT ON RAFAH
Blinken's trip to Israel comes amid growing speculation that Israel
will soon launch a long-promised assault on the southern Gaza city
of Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians displaced from
their homes further north are sheltering.
On Tuesday, defying U.S. calls to ensure that no military operation
took place without adequate steps to protect civilians, Netanyahu
declared Israel would go ahead with the Rafah assault regardless of
any ceasefire deal.
While facing international calls to hold off on any Rafah offensive,
Netanyahu has faced intense pressure from the religious nationalist
partners he depends on for the survival of his coalition government
to press ahead.
Hamas killed 1,200 people and abducted 250 others in its Oct. 7
assault on Israel, according to Israeli tallies.
In response, Israel has launched a relentless assault on Gaza,
killing more than 34,000 Palestinians, local health authorities say,
in a bombardment that has reduced the enclave to a wasteland. More
than one million people face famine after six months of war, the
United Nations has said.
Blinken's check-in with Netanyahu on aid takes place about a month
after U.S. President Joe Biden issued a stark warning to Netanyahu,
saying Washington's policy could shift if Israel fails to take steps
to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of
aid workers.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday there had
been incremental progress toward averting "an entirely preventable,
human-made famine" in the northern Gaza Strip, but called on Israel
to do more.
The first shipments of aid directly from Jordan to northern Gaza's
newly opened Erez crossing were to start on Tuesday, goods were also
arriving via the port of Ashdod, and a new maritime corridor would
be ready in about a week, Blinken said.
(Writing by James Mackenzie; Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi
in Cairo; Editing by Michael Perry and Ros Russell)
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