TEL AVIV – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken renewed calls for Hamas to accept a ceasefire deal Wednesday as he started talks with Israel’s leadership.
“Even in these very difficult times we are determined to get a ceasefire that brings the hostages home — and to get it now. And the only reason that that wouldn’t be achieved is because of Hamas,” Blinken said as he met Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
Hamas is set to respond to an offer in which Israel would temporarily halt its offensive in Gaza and free Palestinian prisoners in return for hostages seized on Oct.
Meanwhile, at the United Nations in New York, a ground operation by Israeli troops in the southern Gaza city of Rafah would be a “tragedy beyond words,” the UN’s humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said in a statement on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila).
“The simplest truth is that a ground operation in Rafah will be nothing short of a tragedy beyond words. No humanitarian plan can counter that,” Griffiths said, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to launch an offensive on Rafah, which has become a refuge to some 1.5 million Palestinians.
With Hamas weighing a truce plan proposed in Cairo talks with the US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators, Netanyahu vowed to launch the assault on Rafah “with or without a deal”.
Washington has joined calls on Israel from other countries and humanitarian organisations to spare the city for fear an army incursion would lead to massive civilian casualties.
“The world has been appealing to the Israeli authorities for weeks to spare Rafah, but a ground operation there is on the immediate horizon,” said Griffiths.
“For the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled to Gaza’s southernmost point to escape disease, famine, mass graves and direct fighting, a ground invasion would spell even more trauma and death.
“For agencies struggling to provide humanitarian aid despite the active hostilities, impassable roads, unexploded ordnance, fuel shortages, delays at checkpoints, and Israeli restrictions, a ground invasion would strike a disastrous blow.
“We are in a race to stave off hunger and death, and we are losing.”
The war in Gaza started after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,535 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Palestinian militants also took some 250 hostages on Oct. 7. Israel estimates 129 remain in Gaza, including 34 believed to be dead.
During his visit, Blinken is also pressing efforts to increase aid into the Gaza Strip, where the United Nations has warned of impending famine due to severe shortages of food.
He will later Wednesday meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and make stops including Ashdod, a port near Gaza that was recently reopened by Israel for aid.
“We also have to be focused on people who are suffering in this crossfire,” Blinken said to Herzog.
On Tuesday, Blinken saw off a Jordanian aid convoy that was heading to the newly reopened Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza.