US Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to Israel on Monday after a tour of six Arab countries aimed at coordinating efforts against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, while seeking solutions to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
Four days after visiting Tel Aviv in a show of solidarity following Hamas’s bloody attack on Israel on October 7, Mr. Blinken landed in the city again and flew straight to Jerusalem for talks with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I want the opportunity to share everything I have heard, what I have learned, over these past few days by visiting our other partners and to discuss the way forward with our allies and friends Israelis,” Blinken told reporters in Cairo on Sunday, as Israel prepares a major ground operation in the Gaza Strip.
The trip comes as US President Joe Biden reportedly considers responding to an invitation to visit Israel to demonstrate, once again, what the US leader describes as unwavering solidarity.
More than 1,400 people, most of them civilians, died in the attack on an unprecedented scale carried out by Hamas, and around a hundred were taken hostage.
Israel responded with continued bombardment of the Gaza Strip, killing around 2,750 people, mostly civilians.
According to U.S. officials, Mr. Blinken heard broad opposition to Hamas from leaders during his tour, but also concerns about the fate of the Palestinians.
“I made it clear that Hamas cannot, must not, continue to act as if nothing had happened,” Mr. Blinken insisted in Cairo.
” At the same time […]we are determined to do everything in our power to meet the needs of the people of Gaza,” he added, believing that “civilians should not have to suffer from the atrocities” of the Palestinian Islamist movement.
Reoccupying Gaza, a “mistake”
Under pressure from the United States, Israel resumed the supply of water to the south of the Gaza Strip on Sunday, after announcing it would interrupt all deliveries of food, water and energy to the densely populated territory.
Washington also appointed a coordinator responsible for directing humanitarian aid to Gaza, retired American Ambassador David Satterfield, expected in Israel on Monday.
The Biden administration asserted that Israel had the right to respond and stopped short of calling for restraint or a ceasefire. But it also warned against more extreme measures such as a mass expulsion of Palestinians, a prospect feared by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a rival of Hamas based in the occupied West Bank.
In an interview Sunday on CBS News, Mr. Biden warned of the dangers of an attempt by Israel to reoccupy the Gaza Strip.
“I think that would be a mistake,” he said.
Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but soon after imposed an air, land and sea blockade there, which intensified when the territory came under the control of Hamas, considered a terrorist group by Israel, in 2007. European Union, Israel and the United States.
Mr. Blinken held talks in four of the five Arab states with diplomatic relations with Israel, namely Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
He also visited Saudi Arabia, which has suspended, due to the war, its discussions on possible normalization with Israel, and Qatar, another partner of the United States which maintains relations with Hamas.