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Blinken to urge Israel to show restraint in campaign to destroy Hamas Blinken urges Israel to show restraint in campaign to destroy Hamas
(about 7 hours later)
US secretary of state in Tel Aviv to call for pauses in fighting to allow more aid to enter GazaUS secretary of state in Tel Aviv to call for pauses in fighting to allow more aid to enter Gaza
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has arrived in Tel Aviv to meet Israel’s war cabinet and urge it to show greater restraint in its campaign to destroy Hamas, starting by allowing more aid to enter Gaza and implementing humanitarian pauses. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has applied the greatest pressure yet on the Israeli government to rethink its strategy in Gaza, calling for localised humanitarian pauses and insisting Israel cannot achieve long-term security solely through military means.
Israel says it has Hamas surrounded in Gaza City and has shown no willingness to back a break in the fighting advocated by the US president, Joe Biden, let alone agree a ceasefire. With more than 9,000 Palestinians declared dead in Gaza by the Hamas-run health authorities from the Israeli bombardment, the US’s top diplomat said more needs to be done to “protect Palestinian civilians” in Gaza and that, without that, it risks destroying an eventual possibility for peace.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 9,000 people have been killed in the territory since 7 October, when Hamas militants crossed into Israel and killed more than 1,400 people. “There will be no partners for peace if they’re consumed by humanitarian catastrophe and alienated by any perceived indifference to their plight,” Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv on Friday, calling for “substantially and immediately” increasing humanitarian assistance and humanitarian pauses to protect civilians while allowing Israel to defeat Hamas. Israel launched its attack on the territory after Hamas’s murderous rampage on 7 October that killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians.
In some of the strongest criticism of Israel by a leader of an EU member state, the Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, described Israel’s actions in Gaza as “something approaching revenge”. After meetings with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other senior officials, Blinken said: “The best path, perhaps the only one, is that of two states for two peoples. It is the only way to ensure lasting security, and the only way to ensure that the Palestinians realise their legitimate aspirations.”
Blinken’s visit coincides with a long-awaited speech by the head of the influential Iran-backed Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, in which he is expected to broadly warn there are red lines that Israel must not cross if a fully fledged war across two fronts is to be avoided. Nasrallah has been unusually silent as he faces growing calls from Hamas to join the battle. Netanyahu, who did not make public remarks with Blinken, as on previous visits, said there would be no ceasefire until all hostages held by Hamas were released.
In weeks-long skirmishing along the border between Lebanon and Israel, the Iranian-funded Hezbollah has already lost 50 fighters, but it has not yet unleashed its full arsenal, partly fearing the consequences of all-out war on its organisation and Lebanon. Hezbollah is regarded as the jewel in Iran’s regional network of militia that terms itself the “axis of resistance”. Blinken’s remarks reflect longstanding US government policy but clearly diverge from the official position of the Israeli coalition government that opposes a two-state solution. In a sign that he sees it not just in the long term but part of ending the fighting, he said work on it must begin “not tomorrow, not after today, but today”.
Before the speech, shelling continued in southern Lebanon, with the outskirts of al-Qawzah, Aita al-Shaab, and Ramieh all under fire by Israeli artillery, the Lebanese state-run National News Agency reported. Blinken also expressed his support for Israel’s “right and obligation to defend itself, defend its people and take the steps necessary to try to ensure that this never happens again”.
The widespread expectation is that Hezbollah will hold back from declaring all-out war, but the slow escalation of violence in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon is making the situation incredibly volatile. A United Arab Emirates foreign minister, Noura al-Kaabi, said the risk of regional spillover was growing and that would be used by extremists to “keep us locked in cycles of extremism”. He described being moved by additional video he had been shown in Israel of violent and deadly acts by the Hamas militants who carried out the attack. “It is striking, and in some ways shocking, that the brutality of the slaughter has receded so quickly in the memories of so many, but not in Israel and not in America,” he said.
Blinken is walking a diplomatic tightrope since he will not want to say anything that detracts from US support for Israel’s right to self-defence, but at the same time he will stiffen his mantra that the way Israel conducts operations matters not only morally but in terms of retaining international support. At the same time, he said he was also shaken by images of dead and wounded Palestinian children in Gaza. “When I see that, I see my own children. How can we not?”
Twenty-three Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground offensive started. Early on Friday, Israel said it had killed Mustafa Dalul, the commander of Hamas’s al-Sabra Tal al-Hawa battalion, who took part in fighting against Israeli forces in Gaza. Blinken said he had spoken to Israeli leaders about “tangible steps that can be taken to increase the sustained delivery of food, water, medicine, fuel, and other essential needs while putting in place measures to prevent diversion by Hamas and other terrorist groups. We’ve identified mechanisms to enable fuel to reach hospitals and other needs in the south.”
In advance of his meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Tel Aviv, Blinken said he would seek “concrete measures” from Israel to ensure that harm to Palestinian civilians was reduced. Israel says the high death toll is due to the way Hamas fighters hide among civilians and set up roadblocks that make it difficult for civilians to move south to relatively safer areas in Gaza. He said Israel had raised legitimate concerns but he said the current flow of trucks – 100 a day – is not enough and he was confident that number would rise. He also said discussions were under way about humanitarian pauses being linked to the release of hostages.
The British security minister, Tom Tugendhat, said he was not going to get into discussions about whether particular strikes breached international law. His intervention came as one of the Arab world’s most iconic figures, the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, told a rally of supporters that the Middle East was locked in “a historic decisive battle without precedent” and a wider war was realistic. “What comes after will not be the same as what came before.”
In an attempt to justify its refusal to allow fuel into Gaza, the Israeli army released a recording of a conversation that it said featured a Hamas health ministry official who admitted that the organisation kept fuel stockpiles beneath Dar al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Israeli and Hezbollah forces have been exchanging fire over Israel’s northern border. Nasrallah said the fighting would not be limited to its current scale and would mount day by day but set no specific deadline by which Israeli troops will leave Gaza before he launches an all-out war.
In the recording, the official is heard saying “they have a million [litres] underground”. The authenticity of the recording is unknown. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, warned in a video message that any such move from Nasrallah would bring “unimaginable loss” to Hezbollah.“Our forces are operating in all sectors and with full strength. Our victory will be decisive and clear. It will send a message to our enemies, a message that will echo through the generations.”
Blinken is also seeking details of how many hostages Israel believes are still alive, and an update on the talks between Israel and Hamas mediated by Qatar for their release. The US secretary of state has said he believes it is not too early to discuss what happens when the Israeli operation ends. Hezbollah is the fulcrum of the axis of resistance funded by Iran, and can strike strategic targets in Israel-airbases, seaports and power plants with pinpoint accuracy. Fired en masse, Hezbollah hopes its “dumb” rockets may overwhelm Israeli air defences such as Iron Dome, which already have to contend with continued launches from Gaza.
After meeting the Israelis, Blinken will fly to Jordan, a country that has cut off ties with Israel, and is at the centre of the Arab calls for an immediate ceasefire. The day after the Hamas attack, Hezbollah launched a salvo of rockets into the occupied territories of Shebaa, and ever since the exchange of fire between Hezbollah and Israel has gradually increased in size on both sides.
The pressure to show greater restraint is not coming only from the US. In a statement, France said it “condemns the attacks against United Nations sites and humanitarian personnel”, reflecting French disapproval of Israeli strikes on the Jabalia, the largest refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.
A government spokesperson said: “France condemns the attacks against United Nations sites and humanitarian personnel whose work is essential to the civilian populations of Gaza.”
Varadkar, the Irish PM, told journalists during a visit to South Korea: “I strongly believe that … Israel has the right to defend itself, has the right to go after Hamas, that they cannot do this again.
“What I’m seeing unfolding at the moment isn’t just self-defence. It looks, resembles something more approaching revenge. That’s not where we should be. And I don’t think that’s how Israel will guarantee future freedom and future security.”