US Secretary of State Antony Blinken continued his diplomatic trip to the Middle East and met with Egyptian leaders on Tuesday efforts to reach a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas in exchange for the release of the hostages still in the hands of the insurgents.
Blinken’s visit coincides with growing concern in Egypt over intentions Israel’s declarations to expand the fighting from the Gaza Strip to the areas bordering Egypt, crowded with displaced Palestinians.
The Israeli Defense Minister said that the Jewish state’s offensive will eventually reach Rafah, a city on the border with Egypt, where more than half of the 2.3 million residents of the besieged territory have sought refuge and are living in increasingly poorer conditions. difficult and miserable.
United Nations humanitarian observers said Tuesday that Israeli evacuation orders already cover two-thirds of the enclave, pushing thousands more people into the border area every day.
Egypt has warned that an Israeli deployment along the border would threaten the peace treaty signed more than four decades ago. Cairo fears that the arrival of fighting in Rafah could push terrified Palestinian civilians across the border, a scenario it said it was determined to avoid.
Blinken, who also met with Egyptian President Abdul Fatah El Sisi on Tuesday, insisted that Palestinians should not be forced to leave Gaza.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo on Tuesday. Photo: EFE What Antony Blinken is looking for
In this tour of the region, Blinken seeks progress in the ceasefire agreement, the possible normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia and in avoiding the escalation of regional conflicts.
Blinken faces significant challenges on all three fronts. Hamas and Israel are publicly at odds over key elements of a possible truce. Israel has rejected US calls to pave the way towards a Palestinian stateand U.S. strikes have shown little sign of deterrence toward Iran-allied militias in the region.
Egypt, along with Qatar – where Blinken will also travel this Tuesday – have tried to broker a deal between Israel and Hamas that would lead to the release of additional hostages in exchange for a several-week pause in Israel’s military offensive.
Details of that deal were outlined by the intelligence chiefs of the United States, Egypt, Qatar and Israel late last month and were presented to Hamas, which has yet to formally respond.
American authorities have said that Blinken hopes to obtain updated information on the ultra-Islamic group’s response to the proposal both in Cairo and Doha. He will travel to Israel on Wednesday inform Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet on the progress made.
As in his four previous trips to the Middle East since the start of the war in Gaza, Blinken’s other main goal is to prevent the conflict from expanding, a task exponentially more difficult due to the situation Intensified attacks by Iranian-backed militias and by the increasingly severe US military response in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and the Red Sea, which has intensified since last week.
Blinken met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman upon his arrival in Riyadh. Saudi officials have said the kingdom remains interested in normalizing relations with Israel in a potentially historic deal, although only if there is a credible plan for the creation of a Palestinian state.
Palestinians displaced by the war in Gaza head to a makeshift shelter near Rafah, on the border with Egypt. Photo: REUTERS The fighting in Gaza does not stop
But any big deal seems a long way off The war continues to rage in Gaza.
After nearly four months of war, the number of Palestinian deaths in Gaza has reached 27,585, according to the Hamas-run territory’s Ministry of Health, after hospitals received 107 bodies in recent days. While the count does not distinguish between civilian victims and combatants, it indicates that two-thirds of those killed were women and minors.
Debris and destruction after an Israeli shelling of a building in Deir Al-Balah, in the southern Gaza Strip, this Sunday. Photo: BLOOMBERG The fighting has devastated large areas of the small enclave and left a quarter of the population without food.
Israel has promised that the war will continue until it destroys Hamas’s military and governance capabilities and secures the release of the more than 100 hostages still held by Hamas.
The terrorist group and other insurgents killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the devastating Oct. 7 attack that started the war, and took about 250 other hostages.
More than a hundred prisoners, mostly women and children, were freed during the November ceasefire in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
The Israeli army said Tuesday it was fighting rebels in areas of the Strip, including the southern city of Khan Younis, where it said Monday it had killed dozens of fighters.
An Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building in the city, killing two parents and four of their five children, according to the children’s grandfather.
Mahmoud al-Khatib said his son Tariq, 41, was sleeping with his family when an Israeli warplane attacked their home in the middle of the night. The Israeli military does not usually comment on specific attacks, but blames Hamas for civilian deaths, claiming its fighters infiltrate civilian areas.
Humanitarian crisis
United Nations humanitarian observers said Tuesday that Israeli evacuation orders for the Strip now cover two-thirds of the territory, or 246 square kilometers (95 square miles). 1.78 million Palestinians – 77% of Gaza’s population – lived in the affected area before the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, following a deadly cross-border attack by rebels.
Displaced people have between 1.5 and 2 liters of water a day for drinking, cooking and washing, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its latest daily report on Tuesday. Furthermore, a significant increase in chronic diarrhea among minors has been reported.
Parents with children face a particularly difficult challenge due to the high costs or lack of diapers, formula and milk.
Zainab Al-Zein, who is sheltering in the central town of Deir al-Balah, said she had to feed her 2.5-month-old daughter solid foods such as crackers and ground rice, much earlier than the normal six months, because she might not there was no milk or formula.
Source: AP
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.