Blinken heads to Israel to press for truce in Gaza

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Israel Friday to press for a truce in Gaza, ahead of a key UN Security Council vote on a US draft resolution on the need for an “immediate” ceasefire.

Israel's main backer the United States announced it would submit for a vote on Friday a draft to the Security Council on the need for an “immediate ceasefire as part of a hostage deal”, after repeatedly using its veto power to block other similarly worded resolutions.

After talks in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Blinken flies to Israel on Friday, his sixth trip to the region since the war began with Hamas's attack on Israel on Oct 7.

Fighting in Gaza this week has centred around Al-Shifa hospital, the besieged territory's largest, with Israel also vowing to launch a new ground assault in overcrowded Rafah in the south.

Israel said its spy chief would also head back to Qatar on Friday for more truce talks with US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators who are trying to negotiate a sixweek pause.

The talks are focused on securing a truce agreement, hinged 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 famine is threatening its 2.4 million people.

Blinken told reporters in Cairo on Thursday “gaps are narrowing” and that the United States was “continuing to push for an agreement in Doha”.

“It's difficult to get there, but I believe it is still possible,” Blinken said. He warned that an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city where around 1.5 million people are hemmed in by the Egyptian border, would be “a mistake”.

“There is no place for the civilians amassed in Rafah to get out of harm's way,” Blinken said.

“There is a better way to deal with the ongoing threat posed by Hamas.”