(Tel Aviv) Traveling in the Middle East, American Secretary of State Antony Blinken pleaded Thursday for the renewal of the truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, while calling on the Israeli authorities to create zones “safe” for Palestinian civilians in the event of a resumption of fighting.
For his third visit since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, the head of American diplomacy led intense consultations with Israeli and Palestinian officials, pleading for the renewal of the truce in Gaza while reaffirming the “right to Israel to defend itself”, but in “respect for international humanitarian law”.
Antony Blinken called on Israel to create “safe” zones for civilians in the southern and central Gaza Strip in the event of a resumption of fighting between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
During talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, he deemed it “imperative to take into account the humanitarian and protection needs of civilians in the south of the Gaza Strip before carrying out military operations there”, according to one account -State Department rendering.
“Plans for the humanitarian protection of civilians must be put in place to minimize the deaths of innocent Palestinians,” he said during a press conference in Tel Aviv.
“This means taking more effective measures to protect the lives of civilians, including clearly and precisely designating areas and locations in southern and central Gaza where they can be safe and protected from the line of fire.” , he added.
The United States, Israel’s unwavering ally, fears that a resumption of fighting and especially its extension into the south of the Gaza Strip will trap hundreds of thousands of civilians who are displaced there, as has happened. happened in the north, a scenario that Mr. Blinken said he did not want to see “repeated”.
Privately, American diplomats do not hide the fact that Mr. Blinken’s succession of visits to Israel aims in part to maintain pressure on the Israeli ally, without dictating the conduct of the war.
“Eighth day”
The head of American diplomacy also urged Israeli justice to bring “extremist settlers who commit acts of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank” to justice, while violence has increased since the start of the war in this Palestinian territory occupied by Israel.
The head of American diplomacy also went in an armored convoy to Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, to meet the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.
PHOTO SAUL LOEB, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Antony Blinken and Mahmoud Abbas
The two officials “discussed the urgent need for measures to improve security and freedom for Palestinians in the West Bank,” according to a State Department statement, which said Blinken reaffirmed the United States’ commitment for “tangible measures” towards a Palestinian state.
President Abbas “underlined the urgent need to achieve a complete ceasefire in the Gaza Strip”, pleaded for “the delivery of additional humanitarian aid”, and recalled that this territory was an “integral part of the State of Palestine”, indicated the official Wafa agency.
The truce between Israel and Hamas, accompanied by an exchange of hostages from the Palestinian Islamist movement for Palestinian detainees, “is yielding results,” he argued.
“Clearly we want to see this process continue to move forward. We want an eighth day and beyond,” he said while the truce renewed since November 24 should theoretically end Friday at 7 a.m. (12 a.m. Eastern time).
This truce negotiated step by step, hour by hour, under the aegis of Egypt and Qatar, offered respite to the population of Gaza who have been relentlessly shelled since the bloody Hamas attack on Israeli soil on October 7.
In addition to the release of hostages, it helped speed up the delivery of crucial humanitarian aid to Gaza, argued Mr. Blinken, who also spoke with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Defense Minister , Yoav Gallant, and opposition leader Yaïr Lapid.
He was still scheduled to travel to Dubai on Friday to participate in COP28 and continue his consultations on the conflict in Gaza with Arab leaders on the sidelines.