On his eleventh trip to the region during the conflict, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel this Tuesday in an attempt to revive faded hope for a possible ceasefire in Gaza while Israeli attacks continue. in Lebanon and the offensive in Gaza intensifies. During the morning, the US representative met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, although, so far, the content of the meeting has not been revealed. Blinken has arrived in the region less than a week after Israel eliminated Hamas leader Yahia Sinwar in the Strip.
Shortly before their arrival, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a missile attack on a military facility in Tel Aviv and a naval base in Haifa—Israel’s first and third largest cities, respectively—which caused no damage or fatalities, but Yes, it has put the country on alert. As a backdrop to the visit of the head of American diplomacy, the 101 hostages who have remained in the Palestinian enclave for more than a year and the rampant humanitarian crisis in a territory that, in addition, has accumulated more than 42,700 deaths and more than 100,000 injured.
The optimism generated, even in the White House, around the opportunity to achieve a truce after the death of Yahia Sinwar at the hands of Israeli soldiers is still at the level of wishes. Something very different is to move on to the facts, especially when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s order is to maintain military pressure on the Strip at the highest level. In the last few hours, the army has issued a new order for the forced evacuation of residents of the town of Beit Lahia, in the north. Furthermore, there are images of groups of Gazans pushed to head south by the occupation troops of an area, the northern one, in which the United Nations continues to denounce the lack of the most basic things for survival – water, food and medical care—due to the blockade imposed by the Jewish State.
“The smell of death is everywhere, bodies lie strewn in the streets or under rubble, and missions to remove the bodies or provide humanitarian assistance are denied,” the head of the UN agency for humanitarian aid denounces in a statement. Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, through his X account (formerly Twitter). “In northern Gaza, people are simply waiting to die,” he adds while calling for a truce “even if it is just a few hours.” The health authorities of the Hamas Government have reported at least 115 deaths in the last two days and affirm, through a statement, that the Kamal Adwan hospital, one of the three main hospitals in the north, is in a “more than catastrophic” situation. ”. One of its entrances, they add, has been attacked with bombs launched from Israeli drones that have failed to explode while shots are fired at the upper floors. The Red Cross, from Gaza City, also warns of the situation for the civilian population and the risk that working in the area poses for its teams.
The more than 12 months of war that have passed have led development rates to plummet to 1950 levels and the gross domestic product has fallen by 35%, according to a study by the UN Development Agency (UNDP, according to its acronym in English). English), Reuters reports. Likewise, poverty is close to 100% and unemployment is 80% and economic recovery will not come in less than a decade.
The Israeli president and Blinken held the meeting before the head of US diplomacy travels to Jordan, Egypt and Qatar, while the Jewish State’s air force hits different targets of the Shiite party-militia in Lebanese territory. At least 13 people have been killed and 57 injured on Tuesday morning in a bombing around the Rafik Hariri public hospital in Beirut. There, US special envoy Amos Hochstein arrived on Monday with new Israeli demands, according to the media. Axios. It is about participating in the application of Security Council resolution 1701, which is in charge of the UN peacekeeping mission and which should prevent the presence of Hezbollah elements or weapons in the south of the country and have freedom of action. in Lebanese airspace.
In all his trips to the region since the war began on October 7, 2023, Blinken’s efforts have barely served to remove the opposing parties from their positions and alter the course of the conflict. Until now, it has only experienced a week of ceasefire, at the end of last November, when an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners took place. The disappearance of Sinwar, elected head of the Palestinian fundamentalist group in August, does not facilitate efforts to now have a truce that would make it possible to release the captives, said Jalil Khaya, the top political official. In fact, one of the unknowns is who is going to take the reins of the negotiations for the movement, which has not yet named the successor of the leader who died in combat on Wednesday of last week in the south of Gaza.
Another of the issues that the Administrations of Israel and the United States have been discussing throughout this month of October is the response that the Jewish State will give to Iran’s missile attack on the 1st, which they have announced as “lethal” and “surprising” despite which, at the same time, could not target either the nuclear program or energy infrastructure, as emerged from a conversation between Netanyahu and President Joe Biden on the 8th.