•Blinken resumes peace shuttle diplomacy today
White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, warned yesterday of the risk of conflict escalating in the Middle East, and said the United States is trying to find safe passage for American citizens out of Gaza into Egypt.
US President, Joe Biden, said he has spoken with Palestinian Authority President, Mahmuod Abbas. He condemned Hamas’s attack on Israel and “reiterated that Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination”.
Biden has also spoken about aid supplies. “I assured him that we’re working with partners in the region to ensure humanitarian supplies reach civilians in Gaza and to prevent the conflict from widening,” he said on X (formerly Twitter).
The death toll in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank reached 2,383 Palestinians dead and 10,814 injured on yesterday morning, according to Palestinian health ministry sources. In Gaza, the death toll climbed to 2,329 Palestinians killed and 9,714 wounded, while in the West Bank, 54 were recorded dead and 1,100 wounded since the conflict between Hamas and Israel started on Oct. 7.
Renewed clashes on Israel’s border with Lebanon yesterday morning with Hezbollah militants, backed by Israel’s regional foe Iran, underscored the dangers of regional spillover. In a call with his French counterpart, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned about further escalation if Israel attacked the Gaza Strip, Iranian state media reported.
Sullivan spoke as Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed yesterday to “demolish Hamas.” Netanyahu convened Israel’s expanded emergency cabinet, including former opposition lawmakers, for the first time yesterday. Israel’s military said 279 of its soldiers had died.
“Hamas thought we would be demolished. It is we who will demolish Hamas,” he said, adding that the show of unity “sends a clear message to the nation, the enemy and the world”.
He spoke as Israeli military prepare for ground operations in Gaza to root out the militant group, whose deadly rampage through Israeli border towns stunned the nation. The military said yesterday it would continue to allow Gazans to evacuate south ahead of the expected ground assault by its forces.
Authorities in Gaza have said more than 2,300 people had been killed, a quarter of them children, and nearly 10,000 wounded so far. The enclave’s hospitals are running short of medical supplies and struggling to cope with the flow of injured.
Among them was four-year-old Fulla Al-Laham, 14 members of whose family, including her parents and siblings, died in an Israeli air strike. “May God keep me alive to take care of her,” said her grandmother Um Muhammed Al-Laham, who held the little girl’s hand as she lay in a hospital with a bandaged arm and on a drip.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said early yesterday that 300 people had been killed and 800 more injured in Gaza during the last 24 hours. Among them was four-year-old Fulla Al-Laham, 14 members of whose family, including her parents and siblings, died in an Israeli air strike.
“May God keep me alive to take care of her,” said her grandmother Um Muhammed Al-Laham, who held the little girl’s hand as she lay in a hospital with a bandaged arm and on a drip.
Sullivan, who spoke to CBS’s “Face the Nation”, said the U.S. is focused on making sure the civilian population leaving Gaza have access to food, water and shelter, and that they can make it into safe areas.
“There is a risk of an escalation of this conflict, the opening of a second front in the north and, of course, Iran’s involvement,” Sullivan said. The United States remains concerned about proxy forces and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, he said.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to send an aircraft carrier to the region sends a clear message of deterrence “to any actor that would seek to exploit the situation,” Sullivan said. The vast majority of the population of Gaza has nothing to do with Hamas, Sullivan said on another network yesterday, and they “deserve dignity, safety and security.”
He said the U.S. is not interfering with Israel’s military planning, but is emphasizing publicly and in private conversations international law around the war and the need for Israel to recognize democratic rights.
Meanwhile, Israel’s defence minister said yesterday that Israel has no interest in waging war on its northern front and that if the Lebanese group Hezbollah restrains itself then Israel will keep the situation along the border as it is.
Sporadic fire across the Israel-Lebanon border over the past week has raised concerns that fighting with Hamas militants in Gaza could escalate into a broader conflict. Yesterday afternoon sirens sounded across northern Israel, sending residents running for shelter, and the military said it intercepted five of nine rockets fired from Lebanon. It then responded with artillery fire at the area from where the rockets were launched.
“We have no interest in a war in the north. We don’t want to escalate the situation,” Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told reporters. “If Hezbollah chooses the path of war, it will pay a very heavy price. Very heavy. But if it restrains itself, we will respect that and keep the situation as it is,” Gallant said, noting that there had been exchanges of fire across the border.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to Israel today, a senior State Department official said, extending his Middle East shuttle diplomacy by a day as the United States works to stop the conflict from spreading.
He said in recent days he has visited Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt to “listen” to them and how they are seeing the crisis. Blinken reiterated the US stands with Israel, but wants to prevent the conflict from spreading. He adds dialogue with diplomats is continuing to work on the release of hostages including US citizens.
The top U.S. diplomat arrived in Israel on Thursday and has since visited six Arab countries. He is currently in Egypt and is expected to meet with President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.
Washington has grown increasingly worried about the fighting spreading across the region and has warned Iran to stay out of it. Blinken has sought the cooperation of Arab allies, as well as China, a country with influence on Tehran, to contain the conflict.
Before departing for Cairo, Blinken held talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, one of the most powerful leaders of the region, a meeting the top U.S. diplomat described as “very productive.”
In the meeting, the Saudi crown prince stressed the need to find ways to stop the conflict, and respect international law, including by lifting the Israeli blockade on Gaza, Saudi state news agency SPA reported.
“(The crown prince stressed the need to find) a peace path to ensure that the Palestinian people obtain their legitimate rights and achieve just and lasting peace,” SPA said.
Meanwhile, Israel’s communications minister said yesterday he was seeking a possible closure of Al Jazeera’s local bureau, and accused the Qatari news station of pro-Hamas incitement and of exposing Israeli soldiers to potential attack from Gaza.
The proposal to shut down Al Jazeera had been vetted by Israeli security officials and was being vetted by legal experts, Shloma Karhi said, adding that he would bring it to the cabinet later in the day. Al Jazeera and the government in Doha had no immediate comment.
“This is a station that incites, this is a station that films troops in assembly areas (outside Gaza) … that incites against the citizens of Israel – a propaganda mouthpiece,” Karhi told Israel’s Army Radio.
“It is unconscionable that Hamas spokespeople’s message goes through this station,” he said, adding: “I hope we will finish with this today.” It was not clear if the latter statement referred to a cabinet discussion or implementation of a closure.a
In another development, thousands of Australians joined pro-Palestinian rallies yesterday, despite police threats to curb them amid tension after the bloody Hamas incursion into Israel eight days ago.
Nations across the developed world are clamping down on such protests out of concern the conflict could trigger violence at home, with France banning them for fear they could disturb public order.
Protesters waved Palestine flags and chanted “Free, free Palestine” as hundreds of police patrolled the area around one of the largest rallies in Sydney, capital of Australia’s most populous state of New South Wales.
A police helicopter circled low over the event in the city’s Hyde Park. About 5,000 people attended, said the organisers, the Palestine Action Group, while a Reuters witness put the number at about 2,000. Rally organisers said they planned to march through central Sydney next weekend.
Thousands also protested at pro-Palestine rallies in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, and in the Victorian state capital of Melbourne, said the Guardian Australia news site.
An official of a Jewish group, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, condemned the rallies taking place “just days” after the attack on Israel. In a statement, Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the council, said some protesters were “chanting in euphemisms calling for Israel’s destruction”.
