BLINKEN ERDOGAN IN TALKS
New trip to contain war
With concerns mounting that the Israel-Hamas war is expanding into a broader regional crisis, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken kicked off his fourth urgent visit to the Middle East in just three months on Saturday with a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The pair discussed strategies for containing the conflict in the Gaza Strip and other ways of promoting “lasting regional peace,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told NBC News.
Turkey is a NATO member and a key US ally. Erdogan has been critical of Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent weeks.
During the face-to-face, Blinken underscored the need to “prevent the conflict from spreading, secure the release of hostages, expand humanitarian assistance and reduce civilian casualties,” as well as the need for a “Palestinian state,” Miller said.
After the meeting with Erdogan, Blinken left Turkey for Crete, where he was scheduled to meet with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
He is also slated to stop in Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the West Bank, and Egypt as he attempts to find diplomatic solutions for the widening Middle East violence. In other developments:
Hezbollah launched a volley of rockets into northern Israel from Lebanon. The terror group claimed it launched 62 rockets, and made direct hits in the direction of the Israeli surveillance base on Mount Meron, along with two Israeli army bases near the Israel-Lebanon border.
Israeli forces, however, said that 40 rockets were fired and made no mention of the Meron area being hit.
The rocket attack came one day after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah called on the group to avenge the death of Hamas political leader Saleh alArouri, believed to be the architect of the Oct. 7 attack in Israel that started the war, by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Tuesday.
The Israeli Air Force’s large missile-detecting balloon — the “Elevated Sensor,” or “Sky Dew” —went airborne Saturday along the northern Israel/southern Lebanon border after receiving parts shipped from the US.
Not operational
The system is not operational and has faced several development setbacks.
The Israel Defense Forces released new footage of its elite Egoz commando unit in southern Gaza, where it said troops battled Hamas gunmen in a school and raided the home of the terror group’s east Khan Younis battalion commander.
“In the town of Bani Suheila on the outskirts of Khan Younis, Egoz troops raided a school where Hamas operatives were holed up,” the Times of Israel’s Emanuel Fabian wrote on X, alongside a video of the Egoz unit firing past blackboards and other school materials.
With the war between Israel and Hamas approaching its 100th day, the mother of an Israeli man whose Oct. 7 death at the hands of Hamas was confirmed Friday slammed the Israeli state for failing to prevent and address the massacre.