US secretary of state Antony Blinken was supposed to meet Israeli leaders in his quest to prevent the Gaza conflict from growing into a regional conflagration, as the Israeli military said its fight against Hamas would continue all year.
Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv late on Monday to brief Israeli officials on his two days of talks with Arab leaders on ending the war, which was triggered by Hamas militants’ attack on October 7 that by Israeli tallies killed about 1,200 people.
He also said he would press Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “on the absolute imperative to do more to protect civilians and to do more to make sure that humanitarian assistance is getting into the hands of those who need it”.
The Israeli offensive has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, destroyed much of the tiny coastal enclave and displaced most of the population of 2.3 million, creating a worsening humanitarian crisis.
In the latest sign that the war may be spreading, Israel killed a top commander of Hezbollah in south Lebanon on Monday, sources said.
Sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters Israel is also carrying out an unprecedented wave of deadly strikes in Syria targeting cargo trucks, infrastructure and people involved in Iran’s weapons lifeline to its proxies in the region. Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant told the Wall Street Journal his country was determined to end Hamas’ rule of the enclave and deter other Iran-backed adversaries.
But Israel has come under growing pressure from the US, its closest ally, and Arab leaders to scale back the assault.
US President Joe Biden, confronted on Monday by protesters shouting “ceasefire now” while visiting an historic black church in South Carolina, said he had been “quietly” working to encourage Israel to ease its attacks and “significantly get out of Gaza”.
Israeli officials have said the operation is entering a new phase of more targeted
warfare, but there was no respite in the fighting on Monday.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, said a “different mix of forces” was pursuing holdout Hamas fighters in the north as “intense operational activity” focused on central Gaza and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
