Blinken to discuss war, hostages on Israel trip
JERUSALEM — Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel next week, an Israeli official said Friday, as talks on a cease-fire deal have stalled and tensions have risen between Israel and the United States over the treatment of civilians in the war.
The Israeli official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said talks with Blinken would center on the remaining hostages held in the Gaza Strip and an impending Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Blinken last visited Israel in March, when he warned its plans to invade Rafah, where more than 1 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, would pose severe risks to the population. Since then, the Biden administration has continued to raise concerns about the planned incursion, saying it should not be carried out without a credible plan to protect civilians.
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has vowed to press ahead with the invasion, saying it is necessary to eliminate Hamas battalions in the city.
Blinken’s visit would come as international mediators have failed to broker a temporary cease-fire that would give Palestinians respite from Israel’s bombardment and allow for the release of hostages abducted in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
The United States has proposed a deal through Egyptian and Qatari intermediaries in which Hamas would release 40 of the most vulnerable hostages in exchange for a sixweek truce and the release of hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
A senior Biden administration official who briefed reporters Thursday on the condition of anonymity blamed Hamas solely for blocking the deal. The official said while Israel had signaled it would accept those terms, the response from Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader hiding underground in Gaza, had been “totally nonconstructive.”
Hamas has since signaled it was willing to return to talks, the official said, adding the United States and its partners would test that signaling in coming days.
With more than 34,000 people killed in Gaza amid Israeli strikes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, Palestinians in the territory were contending with yet another misery this week: a blast of extreme heat that pushed temperatures above 100 degrees Thursday.
The heat, combined with a lack of clean water, has made life unbearable in the tents many Palestinians in Gaza are using for shelter and has intensified worries about the spread of diseases.
In an effort to bring more food, water and medicine into Gaza, U.S. Army engineers on Thursday began constructing a floating pier and causeway off the territory’s coast, Defense Department officials said. The project is expected to be completed in early May.
But aid workers say, and defense officials have acknowledged, shipments by sea are not an adequate substitute for land convoys. Such convoys fell sharply when the war began and have only partly recovered.