Blinken in Israel to push for Gaza truce

Efforts for a Gaza ceasefire have so far failed – Copyright AFP Jim WATSON

Jay Deshmukh with Tony Gamal-Gabriel in Beirut

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel Tuesday to push for a ceasefire in Gaza after his administration called for an end to the war in Lebanon “as soon as possible”.

It is his 11th trip to the Middle East since Hamas’s attack on Israel more than a year ago triggered the Gaza war, and his first since Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah escalated late last month.

He is due to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials, as Israel weighs its response to Iran’s October 1 missile attack.

Previous US efforts to end the Gaza war and contain its regional impact have failed, as did a bid spearheaded by President Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to secure a temporary ceasefire in Lebanon.

After Israel, Blinken will visit Jordan on Wednesday and discuss humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip, an official on the plane with him said.

On Monday, US envoy to Lebanon Amos Hochstein said his administration was seeking an end to the war “as soon as possible” as he pushed for a ceasefire based on a UN resolution that had ended an earlier Israel-Hezbollah war.

Under resolution 1701, Hezbollah should have withdrawn from areas in south Lebanon near the Israeli border, leaving only the country’s weak military and UN peacekeepers deployed there.

But Hezbollah remained south of Lebanon’s Litani River, and in October last year began launching low-intensity cross-border strikes into Israel, in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas.

After nearly a year of war in Gaza, Israel shifted its focus to Lebanon, vowing to secure its northern border to allow tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by the cross-border fire to return to their homes.

Israel ramped up its air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds around the country and on September 30 sent in ground troops, in a war that has killed at least 1,489 people since September 23, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.

The wars in Gaza and Lebanon have also drawn in other Iran-aligned armed groups, including in Yemen, Syria and Iraq.

Iran on Monday warned the United States would bear “full responsibility” in the event of an Israeli retaliation to its missile attack on October 1.

Blinken also plans to speak to Israeli leaders about the expected military strike on Iran and discourage any move that could massively escalate regional conflict, the official on his plane said.

– 300 Hezbollah targets –

Hezbollah on Tuesday said it launched a salvo of rockets targeting two positions in the suburbs of Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv, including an intelligence base.

It also said it targeted the “Stella Maris naval base” near the northern city of Haifa.

The claim came hours after Israel said it struck around 300 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon over 24 hours, as it ramped up its campaign to hit the group’s finances.

Lebanon’s health ministry said four people were killed and 24 wounded Monday in Israeli strikes near the country’s largest public hospital, in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut.

It earlier reported six people killed in the eastern city of Baalbek and said four rescuers linked to Hezbollah had died in the south in Israeli raids over 24 hours.

Israel’s military said an underground vault with tens of millions of dollars in cash and gold was among nearly 30 targets belonging to Hezbollah-linked financial firm Al-Qard al-Hassan hit since Sunday.

The money in the vault was “being used to finance Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel”, Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.

Subject to US sanctions, the financial institution is part of a network of associations, schools and hospitals linked to Hezbollah.

– Looking for survivors –

Shortly after Israel’s military told residents to evacuate parts of Beirut, the Ouzai neighbourhood a few kilometres from the city centre was hit for the first time during the conflict, Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported.

Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers told AFP they were looking for survivors amid the devastation in Ouzai, adding that the evacuation order, then the strike, caused “panic among residents” who “started to run in the streets”.

“They did not leave any room for people to escape. The strike came closely after the warning,” one said.

While most districts of Beirut’s southern suburbs had been emptied for almost a month, the densely-packed residential area of Ouzai was still filled with people.

A Lebanese security official told AFP that the country’s national airline had to switch landing strips after Israeli strikes near Beirut’s only international airport hit close to the main runway.

– ‘We will die of hunger’ –

In the Gaza Strip, Israel launched a major air and ground assault in northern Gaza earlier this month, vowing to stop Hamas militants from regrouping in the area.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said four Palestinians were killed in strikes on Monday, while several homes were blown up in the northern area of Jabalia, a focal point of the recent fighting.

A displaced resident said Jabalia “is being wiped out”.

“If we don’t die from the bombing and gunfire, we will die of hunger,” said 42-year-old Umm Firas Shamiyah, demanding aid be sent to the north.

Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have fled the assault on northern Gaza, and according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees around 400,000 people were trapped in the area last week.

The UN has warned of the risk of famine in Gaza, its figures showing that 396 aid trucks have entered the territory so far this month — far below the 3,003 seen in September.

The war was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 last year, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed 42,603 people, a majority civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the UN considers reliable.

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