Israel: Blinken Meets Netanyahu For Big Ceasefire Push

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday in the first big U.S. push for a Middle East ceasefire since Israel killed the leader of Hamas last week – and the last attempt before a presidential election that could upend U.S. policy.

Blinken began his meetings in Israel as Hezbollah launched rockets into Tel Aviv and Haifa and Israeli air strikes pummelled parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs, including an air strike that caused a multi-storey building to entirely collapse and sent a fresh wave of panicked residents fleeing.

Repeated diplomatic efforts have failed to bring an end to both the year-long war in the Palestinian territory of Gaza and to its spillover conflict between Israel and the Lebanese Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.

Blinken, on his 11th trip to the region since the Gaza war erupted, faces a daunting mission.

Hezbollah said on Tuesday there would be no negotiations while fighting continues and it claimed responsibility for a drone attack on Netanyahu’s holiday home on Saturday.

Washington hopes the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar – Israel’s most wanted man, blamed for triggering the year of warfare by planning the deadly attack on Oct. 7 last year on Israeli territory – will provide a new opportunity for peace.

But Israel has so far shown no sign of relenting in its military campaigns even after assassinating several leaders of Iran’s allies Hamas and Hezbollah, which lost its powerful secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah in a Sept. 27 airstrike.

In Gaza on Tuesday, the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA called for a temporary truce to allow civilians to leave areas in the north of the enclave where Israeli forces were hunting down Hamas militants.

Gaza health officials said more than 20 people had been killed by Israeli forces. Dozens of corpses lay on roadsides and under rubble, they said.

“Hospitals ran out of coffins to prepare the dead,” said Munir Al-Bursh, director of the Gaza health ministry.

Reuters/Shakirat Sadiq