With negotiations stalling, US secretary of state seeks to bridge gaps in Gaza ceasefire talks during Middle East tour
TEL AVIV: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv on Sunday as part of a Middle East tour aimed at intensifying diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza this week, seeking to end the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.
On what marks his 10th visit to the region since the conflict began in October, Blinken is scheduled to meet with senior Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Monday, according to a senior State Department official. Following his visit to Israel, Blinken will proceed to Egypt. A senior Biden administration official, speaking to reporters en route to Tel Aviv, said the negotiations for a truce and the return of hostages held in Gaza had reached an “inflection point.”
The official emphasized that Blinken would stress the importance of finalizing the deal to all involved parties. “We believe this is a critical time,” the official stated. In related news, Blinken engaged in discussions with the foreign ministers of Qatar and Egypt ahead of the ceasefire talks. Despite months of intermittent negotiations led by Qatar, the United States, and Egypt, a deal has yet to be reached, and violence continued unabated in Gaza on Sunday.
A strike on Sunday killed at least 21 people, including six children, according to Palestinian health authorities. The children and their mother were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the central town of Deir Al-Balah, health officials reported. The Israeli military has not yet commented on the incident.
The military stated that it had destroyed rocket launchers used to attack Israel from Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza that has seen intense fighting in recent weeks and had killed 20 Palestinian fighters. Ceasefire negotiations are set to continue this week in Cairo, following a two-day meeting in Doha last week. Blinken aims to secure a breakthrough after the U.S. presented bridging proposals that mediating countries believe could narrow the gaps between the warring parties.
There is increasing urgency to reach a ceasefire amid fears of regional escalation, especially after Iran threatened to retaliate against Israel following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31. At Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, relatives mourned around the bodies of the mother and her six children, who were wrapped in white shrouds bearing their names.
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