2024-01-10 03:10:16
Antony Blinken urges Israel to exercise restraint. The American Secretary of State called on the Jewish state on Tuesday to spare Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and announced the principle of a UN mission supposed to examine a possible return to the north of Palestinians displaced by the war with Hamas. “We agreed today on a plan for the United Nations to conduct an assessment mission, which will determine what needs to be done to allow displaced Palestinians to return home safely to the north.” Gaza, he told the press after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government.
In Tel Aviv today, I met with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Herzog, and several other senior government officials about their military campaign in Gaza and how we see the future of the region and Israel’s future. pic.twitter.com/MQDROGKtpu
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) January 9, 2024
He also considered that the price paid by civilians in the Gaza Strip, “especially children”, is “far too high”, and considered it imperative to deliver more humanitarian aid, the territory must receive “more food , no more water, no more medicine.”
Antony Blinken did not provide any details on the form that this UN mission would take or on a timetable, stressing only that it intervenes “as the (military) campaign engages in less intensity in the north of the Gaza Strip.
Blinken to meet Mahmoud Abbas
Israel’s primary political and military supporter, the United States has for some time insisted to its ally on the need for a reduction in the intensity of the war with a view to more targeted actions against Hamas. In a latest report, the Palestinian organization’s health ministry in Gaza announced Tuesday that 23,210 people had been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war.
Antony Blinken also urged Israel to “stop taking measures that undermine the Palestinians’ ability to govern themselves.” “Israel must be a partner of Palestinian leaders wishing to lead their people to live in peace (at its) side, as neighbors,” insisted the highest American diplomat. He also announced that he would travel to the occupied West Bank on Wednesday to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. “The Palestinian Authority also has a responsibility to reform itself and improve its governance problems,” he said.
The American Secretary of State is making his fifth official visit to Israel since the start of the war, provoked by the unprecedented attack by Hamas on October 7 on Israeli soil, which left around 1,140 dead, mostly civilians, according to a AFP count based on the Israeli toll.
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