Blinken traveled to Israel on Monday to present a plan for Gaza's future based on his discussions with Arab and Turkish leaders during a tour of the region. But he received little public response from Israeli officials.
At Tuesday meetings With the Israeli president, prime minister, defense minister and emergency war cabinet, Blinken pressed Israel to reduce civilian casualties in its war on Hamas, already one of the most destructive conflicts of the century. Health officials there say that about 23,000 people have been killed in Gaza over the past three months.
But the gaps between Israeli and Arab leaders remain wide. He invites members of the extreme right in the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu For mass removal Of civilians from Gaza. Israeli officials have rejected US calls for a “renewed and revitalized” Palestinian Authority to play a role in a Hamas-free Gaza after the war.
Blinken is pushing regional leaders to seize the crisis as an opportunity in the decades-long Arab-Israeli conflict. He told Israeli officials on Monday that ending the war would allow Israel to improve its relations with its Arab neighbors. These relations witnessed a noticeable improvement until Hamas launched a deadly attack on Israeli communities in October, and Israel responded with its campaign to eliminate the armed group. Blinken said post-war rebuilding with non-Hamas Palestinians at the center could be a path to eventual statehood.
But Blinken did not provide details about how to overcome the obstacles that have confounded every previous American administration that tried to pave the way for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Blinken's two-day diplomatic blitz here, which culminated his fourth Middle East tour since Hamas killed about 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7, comes amid mixed signals from Israeli leaders about plans to ease the fighting in Gaza.
Blinken and his Israeli counterparts agreed on at least one point: The United Nations must assess conditions in northern Gaza, where Israeli bombing has flattened homes and civilian infrastructure, to determine when residents might return. But when that might happen remains a sticking point.
Blinken said He told reporters that Gazans should be able to return as soon as they are able to do so safely. but Israeli officials told Israeli media that they would not allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza until Hamas released the Israeli hostages. The Biden administration opposes this requirement as a form of collective punishment.
Israeli military officials announced the withdrawal of their forces from the northern Gaza Strip. They said they would now turn to more precise raids on targets there.
“Operations will continue in the north, but on a different scale,” Admiral Daniel Hagary told reporters late Monday. “The war will continue in 2024, but in a different way. The reservists will be released. We will act in different ways depending on the needs of the operational space.”
A senior American official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters, confirmed that Israel had withdrawn several thousand of its forces in a “major withdrawal” in the north. Residents in the north said the level of violent fighting had decreased.
“We hear explosions, gunfire, and some airstrikes,” Ramadan Al-Amriti, a 56-year-old resident of Gaza City, told the Washington Post. “It's not completely safe or quiet but it's better than before, without a doubt.”
Fighting is still ongoing in southern and central Gaza. Netanyahu and other officials said there would be no end to hostilities for several months.
Health authorities there said nearly 250 Gazans were killed in the 24 hours before Blinken arrived. Israeli attacks on Monday forced refugees to flee the last functioning hospital in central Gaza, an area crowded with tens of thousands of displaced civilians.
American officials said that the Israelis informed Washington that they intend to significantly reduce operations in the next phase of the military campaign in Gaza, and will rely on a smaller number of forces and reduce the intense aerial bombardment that led to the bombing of Gaza. High-rise buildings and city blocks were flattened. Instead, the Israelis say they will deploy special forces to eliminate Hamas leaders and destroy the group's tunnels and military infrastructure.
US officials admitted that such previous guarantees had not been achieved. They hope that the first troop reduction since the start of ground operations will be a signal that Israeli officials are finally beginning to bow to American pressure, in addition to the economic pressures resulting from the diversion of tens of thousands of reservists from the workforce.
Michael Milshtein, former head of the Palestinian division in Israeli military intelligence, said: “I think there is a desire here to respond to pressure from the Americans, who are demanding less harm to innocent people in Gaza.” “But the needs of the Israeli economy cannot be ignored either, and perhaps also the northern front,” he said, referring to the Hezbollah forces massing along the Israeli border with Lebanon.
US officials said Blinken was pressing his Israeli counterparts to reduce the intensity of fighting in Gaza as quickly as possible, while also urging caution in responding to the presence of Hezbollah forces.
Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged fire almost daily over the past three months, forcing thousands of civilians on both sides to evacuate the border. A drone airstrike last week, which US officials say was launched by Israel, killed a Hamas leader in his office in Beirut, raising fears that the fire would spread. A Hezbollah commander was also killed on Monday.
“It is clearly not in anyone’s interest — Israel, Lebanon and Hezbollah for that matter — to see this escalation,” Blinken said on Monday.
Israeli leaders have expressed their preference for a peaceful solution on the border with Lebanon – but have also warned that they will not tolerate tit-for-tat violence on the border indefinitely. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said Friday: “We prefer the path of the agreed-upon diplomatic settlement.” “But we are approaching the point where the hourglass will tip over.”
Israeli summaries of the meetings with Blinken stressed that the Israeli military campaign against Hamas and Hezbollah will not subside anytime soon. Gallant said that Israeli forces will “intensify” their military operations in southern Gaza. Netanyahu's competitor Benny Gantz, seen as a moderate force in the government, told Blinken that Israel was committed to “changing the reality in northern Israel to enable the safe return of its citizens to their homes” — a possible reference to the military escalation against Hezbollah forces on the border.
During his visits with Arab leaders, Blinken announced progress in coordinating a plan for the reconstruction and governance of Gaza. Arab leaders have been reluctant to discuss their involvement publicly as scenes of carnage emerge from the Strip daily, and there is no guarantee that investments in rebuilding will not be quickly reversed by another war.
The Biden administration considers financial support for reconstruction from Saudi Arabia and other energy-rich Gulf states essential to any long-term solution in Gaza. Before leaving Saudi Arabia, Blinken said he saw a willingness on the part of Gulf partners to contribute, but the non-negotiable condition was that the West Bank and Gaza “must be united under Palestinian-led rule.”
Israeli officials objected For such a possibility. They've also shown little indication that they are He is close to ending the war on Hamas.
Neither Israel nor the Biden administration supports a general ceasefire; They say This would give Hamas time to regroup and launch additional attacks inside Israel. Officials said Hamas must release more than 100 remaining Israeli hostages being held in Gaza before Israel withdraws.
CIA Director William J. Burns brokered the release of 107 hostages, some of whom were American citizens, believed to be in Gaza.
On Tuesday, Blinken met with family members of the hostages. Their defenders camped in front of the hotel where he was staying and called on the administration to press for the release of more hostages.
“Biden, only you can save them!” A protester's sign read.
The meeting was contentious at times, according to a person familiar with the discussion.
The families insisted that the United States, “as the most powerful country in the world,” must do more to free their relatives, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
before On Blinken's visit, Gallant, the Defense Secretary, presented his own proposal for post-war Gaza to the War Cabinet. This first public outline by a senior official included elements favored by the Biden administration, Such as the expectation that Palestinians will continue to live in the Strip. But it also includes matters that are unacceptable to American officials, such as excluding any role for the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank.
Restoring order in Gaza is a source of great concern to American and Israeli officials. In private discussions, Israeli officials have suggested relying on local leaders to provide security and distribute humanitarian aid.
In the midst of food shortages… UN aid trucks in the enclave were looted. Residents of northern Gaza They have been largely denied access to aid since fighting resumed after a lull of more than a month.
UN officials described the problem to Blinken when he visited a World Food Program warehouse in Jordan. He said that expanding access to aid was one of the priorities of his visit.
Blinken's spokesman said that during his meeting on Tuesday with Netanyahu and the Israeli war cabinet, Blinken defended the work of the United Nations and praised the appointment of a UN coordinator for the reconstruction of Gaza.
Hazem Baalousha in Amman, Jordan, and Itay Stern in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.
