ABBAS-BLINKEN TALKS DO LITTLE TO WIN OVER PALESTINIAN SCEPTICS
Some Gazans say US Secretary of State’s calls for Israel to reduce civilian casualties is playing to regional allies and not people under daily attack
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah yesterday at the end of his tour of the Middle East and as the US tried to prevent the war in Gaza from becoming a regional conflict.
Mr Blinken and Mr Abbas discussed how to improve dire living conditions in Gaza, which has been ravaged by four months of war, and the need to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
According to the Gazan Ministry of Health, more than 23,300 people have been killed in the territory since Israel declared war on Hamas after the October 7 attacks on Israel killed about 1,200.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Mr Blinken said the civilian death toll in Gaza was “far too high”.
It is not the first time he has called on Israel to reduce the number of civilian casualties, which has risen each day as the military continues to pound the densely populated Gaza Strip with air strikes and heavy artillery fire.
An air strike in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis killed journalist Heba Al Abadlah and her daughter Joudi on Tuesday, witnesses told The
National.
Mr Blinken has also pressed Israel to do more to prevent the Gaza war from spilling over into the wider Middle East.
His visit came at a time of high tension on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where Israeli forces have clashed with Iran-backed Hezbollah, and in the Red Sea, where the Iranbacked Houthis have launched attacks on shipping lanes in support of Hamas.
Mr Blinken’s visit appeared to have made little impact in reducing those tensions.
On Monday, Israel assassinated a senior Hezbollah commander after the Lebanese group had taken aim at an Israeli base in retaliation for the killing of the Hamas group’s deputy leader in Beirut.
The Houthis in Yemen launched their largest attacks on shipping in the Red Sea yet on Tuesday night, despite the presence of a US-led task force with the responsibility of protecting international shipping.
Mr Blinken and Mr Abbas discussed Palestinian fears that Israel is using the conflict to permanently displace Gazans, robbing them of land and resources.
About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced from their homes within the enclave.
According to the UN, about half of the population of Gaza now live in and around Rafah, on the southern border with Egypt.
Many of those displaced Palestinians have fled northern Gaza, which was the initial focus of Israel’s air and ground campaign in October.
Mr Blinken also announced during his visit that Israel had agreed to co-operate with a new UN assessment mission that would pave the way for residents of northern Gaza to return home.
The area was heavily bombarded in the early days of the campaign, forcing many residents out.
Palestinian political analyst Nour Odeh said the Blinken plan would be ineffective. “Even if Israel were to allow such a mission, I think it will take time, possibly weeks, because Israel intends to use the return of [Gazans] as leverage – as they declared,” she said.
Israeli officials said northern residents could only return as part of a deal to release the more than 100 Israeli hostages held in Gaza following the October 7 attacks.
“Blinken is saying ‘nicer’ things that may appease his other regional allies but the practical policies haven’t become any ‘nicer’ yet and there remains a dangerous absence for a vision of how this horror will end,” Ms Odeh said.
“Also, Israel has a long history of barring UN missions and officials, and this hostility has become more overt since the war began.”
After Mr Blinken’s statement, residents of northern Gaza spoke to The National of their desire to return home.
“We can’t stay here any more; we want to go back to Gaza city,” said Hala, who is now living in a shelter run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in the southern part of the enclave.
Her house was destroyed in an Israeli air attack but she said that she is determined to rebuild it.
“There is no good food or a clean place to stay [in the south] – the war has to end,” she said.
Ali Radwan, who is staying in the southern Deir Al Balah area, said all that he dreams of now is waking up in his own home.
“Thank God that my home is still standing,” he said.