Blinken pushes Israel to ease violence
JERUSALEM — Secretary of State Antony Blinken pushed top Israeli leaders in back-toback meetings Tuesday to limit civilian casualties in Gaza, avoid all-out war with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and get serious about planning for what comes after the fighting finally ends, said U.S. officials.
Blinken, the top diplomat of Israel’s most vital ally, is presenting a plan for Gaza’s future to Israeli leaders based on his meetings with leaders in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, Greece and Turkey before arriving in Israel.
In meetings with Israel’s president, prime minister, defense minister and emergency war cabinet, Blinken is pressing Israel to reduce the scale of civilian casualties in the Gaza war — already one of the century’s most destructive conflicts — where about 23,000 people have been killed to date, according to Gaza health officials.
But the gaps between the Israelis and Arab leaders remain vast as far-right members of the Netanyahu government call for the mass displacement of civilians from Gaza and have dismissed American calls for a “revamped and revitalized” Palestinian Authority to play a role in postwar Gaza.
“I’ve just come from a number of countries in the region,” Blinken told Israeli President Isaac Herzog ahead of their meeting at a Tel Aviv hotel. “I want to share some of what I’ve heard from those leaders with the president as well as with the prime minister and the Cabinet later today.”
While wide gaps remain among players in the region, the secretary is pushing governments to see the crisis as a potential inflection point in the decades-long conflict. He told Israeli officials Monday ending the war would give it a chance to improve ties with Arab neighbors, relations that were notably warming before the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. And he has touted postwar rebuilding, with nonHamas Palestinians at the center, as a possible pathway to a future Palestinian state.
Blinken, however, has not offered details on how the United States would overcome the sticking points that have bedeviled every previous U.S. administration in forging a path to a Palestinian state.
The two-day diplomatic blitz, capping Blinken’s fourth Middle East swing in three months, comes amid mixed signals from Israel about the pace of easing the fight in Gaza.
Military officials have announced troop drawdowns in the northern part of the enclave, allowing some residents to venture back to their ravaged neighborhoods. Israel said it will turn to more targeted raids there.
But fighting continues to rage in southern and central Gaza, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials have said there will be no end to hostilities for months.
Almost 250 Gazans were killed in the 24 hours before Blinken’s arrival, according to Palestinian health authorities. Nearby Israeli attacks Monday forced refugees to flee the last functioning hospital in central Gaza, a region packed with tens of thousands of displaced civilians.