Amid the deepening humanitarian crisis and mass displacement in Gaza, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said civilians “must be able to return home as soon as conditions allow”…reports Asian Lite News
Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned the war in Gaza could spread and threaten security in the wider Middle East, on a regional tour aimed at de-escalating the conflict.
“This is a moment of profound tension in the region. This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering,” Blinken told a news conference in Doha alongside Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.
The war started when Hamas on October 7 launched an unprecedented attack on Israel which resulted in about 1,140 deaths, most of them civilians.
The Hamas members also took around 250 hostages, 132 of whom remain in captivity, according to Israel. At least 24 are believed to have been killed.
In response, Israel has carried out a relentless bombardment and ground invasion that have killed at least 22,835 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Blinken warned it was “imperative” Israel put a “premium on protecting civilians”, ensuring operations were “designed around protecting civilians… and around getting humanitarian assistance where people need it”.
Amid the deepening humanitarian crisis and mass displacement in Gaza, Blinken said civilians “must be able to return home as soon as conditions allow”.
“They cannot, they must not be pressed to leave Gaza,” he added, after two Israeli minsters suggested Palestinians should be encouraged to emigrate. Blinken called the deaths of two Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza, which the Qatar-based network has blamed on Israel, an “unimaginable tragedy”.
“That’s also been the case for… far too many innocent Palestinian men, women and children,” he said. Blinken arrived in Qatar following stops in Jordan, Turkey and Greece.
He went on to Abu Dhabi late Sunday, and on Monday is due to travel to Saudi Arabia.
Blinken will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Saudi desert city of Al-Ula, said a US official on condition of anonymity.
Qatar, a wealthy Gulf emirate which hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East, also hosts Hamas’s political office and is the main residence of the Islamists’ self-exiled leader Ismail Haniyeh.
The Qatari premier said talks with Hamas on a fresh truce in Gaza were “ongoing” with US backing.
Doha mediated a one-week break in fighting the began in November and led to the release of scores of Israeli and foreign hostages, as well as aid entering the besieged Gaza Strip.
However, Sheikh Mohammed said a Tuesday strike in Lebanon that killed Hamas’s deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri had affected “the complicated process”.
Jordan’s King Abdullah urged Blinken to use Washington’s influence over Israel to press it for an immediate ceasefire and warned of the “catastrophic repercussions” of Israel’s continued military campaign.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue fighting.
“The war must not be stopped until we achieve all the goals: the elimination of Hamas, the return of all our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel,” he said at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday. “I say this to both our enemies and our friends.”
Despite global concern over the death and destruction in Gaza and widespread calls for a ceasefire, Israeli public opinion remains firmly behind the operation, although support for Netanyahu has fallen sharply.
Over the weekend, residents reported intense gun battles in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, and in central districts of the densely populated enclave. Israeli strikes on houses in Khan Younis killed 50 people, health officials in the hospital there said on Sunday.
An Israeli air strike on a car near Rafah in southern Gaza on Sunday killed two Palestinian journalists, according to health officials in Gaza and the journalists’ union there.
Central Gaza has been the focus of a heavier Israeli ground and air offensive in the past two weeks, with residents reporting tank shelling as explosions lit the skies overnight on Sunday.
In a post on the social media platform X, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri lamented that Arab and Islamic countries had yet to back South Africa’s call for genocide proceedings against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
“We hope that there will be a remedy, otherwise this official silence will constitute a mandate for the occupation to eradicate what remains of Gaza,” he said.
Israel denies targeting civilians and says Hamas militants deliberately embed themselves among civilian populations. Hamas, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, denies that.
As part of his trip, Blinken aims to press hesitant Muslim nations in the Middle East to prepare to play a role in the reconstruction, governance and security of Gaza if and when Israel manages to eliminate Hamas, a State Department official said earlier.
Outside Gaza, there was more violence in the occupied West Bank, where hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers and settlers over the past weeks.
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