Blinken seeks to head off wider war as Israel pursues Gaza offensive

[January 08, 2024]  By Simon Lewis and Nidal al-Mughrabi

ABU DHABI/CAIRO (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was holding talks on Gaza in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on Monday before heading on to Israel, seeking to kick start concerted peace efforts that he says are needed to avoid a wider conflagration.

Blinken began a five-day Middle East diplomatic effort in Jordan and Qatar on Sunday, his fourth visit to the region since deadly Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas militants in Gaza sparked a massive Israeli assault that shows no signs of ending.

Other Iranian-backed militant groups have weighed in, attacking Israeli forces on the border with Lebanon, U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria and commercial ships in the Red Sea. Israel has also cracked down on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Germany's foreign minister Annalena Baerbock was in Israel on Monday and the European Union's top diplomat Josep Borrell was in Lebanon in a sign of international concern. Baerbock said Israel had a duty to protect Palestinians in the West Bank after Blinken sounded the wider alarm in Doha on Sunday.

"This is a moment of profound tension for the region. This is a conflict that could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and suffering," Blinken said before heading to Abu Dhabi.

Following earlier pressure from Washington, Israel outlined a more focused approach to its war in Gaza ahead of the visit but Palestinian health officials say it is still killing scores of people every day, reporting 73 dead in the past 24 hours.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the intensity of the offensive in Gaza signalled his country's determination to end Hamas rule of the enclave and deter other potential Iran-backed adversaries, including Hezbollah in Lebanon.

"My basic view: We are fighting an axis, not a single enemy," Gallant told the Wall Street Journal. "Iran is building up military power around Israel in order to use it."

'THEY MAY KILL US HERE'

Palestinians said Israel had bombarded areas in the east of the southern city of Khan Younis and central Gaza Strip all night amid clashes in those areas. One strike alone in Deir Al-Balah had killed 18 people and wounded dozens, they said.

Israel said it had bombed an arms cache and uncovered a tunnel shaft in the central part of the strip and killed at least 10 Palestinian fighters in Khan Younis.

On Monday morning, the Israeli army dropped leaflets on al Moghani in central Gaza Strip warning residents to evacuate several districts it said were "dangerous combat zones".

Nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes in the war at least once and many are now moving again, often sheltering in makeshift tents or huddled under tarpaulins.

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, seek shelter near the border with Egypt, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, January 7, 2024. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

For Aziza Abbas, 57, one of a handful of Gazans now camped close to the southern border with Egypt, there was nowhere else to go after what she said was bombardment around a school in which she had taken shelter after leaving her home in the north.

"They may kill us here, it doesn't matter to them," she told Reuters, saying she did not want to leave Gaza for Egypt, which has closed the border fearing an exodus.

The U.N.'s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said on Monday there had been 63 direct hits on its installations and only five out of 22 of its health centres were operating in the middle and southern parts of Gaza.

Israel, whose offensive has also caused acute shortages of food, water, and medicines, accuses Hamas militants of deliberately operating among civilians, allegations they deny.

Blinken said he would tell Israeli officials it is imperative they do more to prevent civilian casualties in Gaza and that Palestinian civilians must be allowed to return home and not be pressed to leave Gaza.

'CATASTROPHIC REPERCUSSIONS'

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.

The Israeli offensive has so far killed 22,835 Palestinians in Gaza, Palestinian health officials said on Sunday. On Monday, they said 99 people had been wounded in the previous 24 hours along with the 73 more dead.

Netanyahu said the war would not stop until Hamas returned more than 100 hostages still held of 240 people seized during its Oct. 7 attack on Israeli towns that killed 1,200 people.

Qatar's prime minister said on Sunday his country would continue trying to mediate the release of the hostages but the killing of a Hamas leader by an Israeli drone strike in Beirut last week had affected its ability to do so.

As part of his trip, Blinken aims to press hesitant Muslim nations in the Middle East to prepare to play a role in the post-war reconstruction, governance and security of Gaza, a State Department official said.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Emily Rose; additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Hatem Maher in Cairo, Ali Sawafta and James Mackenzie; writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Philippa Fletcher; editing by Neil Fullick and William Maclean)

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