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Blinken tells Netanyahu to secure release of captives after Sinwar’s killing
Following a meeting with Israel’s PM Netanyahu, US Secretary of State Blinken urged Israel to capitalise on the killing of Hamas’s chief Sinwar by securing the release of captives and ending the war in Gaza.
The US State Department said Blinken also emphasised the need for Israel to boost humanitarian assistance into Gaza.
Blinken is also due to meet Israel’s Defence Minister Gallant and other officials at the start of a week-long trip that will also take him to Jordan and Qatar.
Head of Shin Bet against increasing aid to Gaza
The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation is reporting that the head of Israel’s Internal Security Service Shin Bet opposes increasing aid to Gaza and supports providing a minimum amount of it to pressure captive-release negotiations.
Gaza officials are saying that no aid has entered the northern part of the Strip that has been under a deadly Israeli siege for almost three weeks now.
Israel minister says he expects US support ‘following attack on Iran’
Israel’s Defence Minister Gallant told visiting US official Blinken that his government expects Washington’s support when it attacks Iran in response to a missile strike earlier this month.
“The United States’s stance with Israel following our attack on Iran will strengthen regional deterrence and weaken the axis of evil,” Gallant said according to a statement from his office.
Statement on Blinken-Netanyahu talks did not mention ceasefire
The statement issued by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office after his meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken did not once mention ceasefire. It talked about the fighting in the north and in southern Lebanon, briefing Blinken about that and the prospects for releasing the captives now that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed.
But that word “ceasefire” has not been mentioned by the Israeli side. That explains why a few dozen Israelis have been protesting right in front of the hotel where Blinken is staying because they say the urgency and the focus should be on a ceasefire agreement, and they don’t really trust Netanyahu’s intentions in that regard.
Demonstrations outside Blinken’s hotel in Tel Aviv
Demonstrators hold a banner as family members and supporters of captives held in Gaza gather outside the hotel where US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is staying during a visit to Israel to show support for his efforts to reach a deal to release the captives.
Protesters outside Blinken’s hotel are chanting ‘ceasefire now’
The families of Israeli captives are the ones who are trying to keep the ceasefire issue alive. They’re protesting in front of the hotel where Blinken is said to be staying to tell him that that should be the priority.
They’re chanting “ceasefire now” and demanding a deal in any way as it must be reached now because it is still possible to bring the captives home. That is their one concern, their one demand, while in the Israeli political establishment, so much else is being talked about.
Some media reports are saying that Blinken even offered a road map to the Israelis about how to end the war on Gaza and what “the day after” would look like. But as far as the Israeli discussions are concerned, the focus and chatter are on everything except a ceasefire.
US diplomacy ‘proven completely feckless’
Omar Rahman, a fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, has questioned the goal of US Secretary of State Blinken’s 11 trips to the region since the Gaza war began.
“What has come out of those 11 trips? Nothing but continued Israeli aggression, war, mass killing, the expansion of the war into other fronts,” Rahman told Al Jazeera from New York.
“I think it’s fair to wonder or to say whether this is just a show for appearances, something to run interference for the Israelis while the United States continues in every possible way to support Israel, including in its war aims.”
Washington says it wants regional de-escalation and a ceasefire in Gaza, but the Biden administration has refused to suspend US weapons transfers to Israel or condition any assistance to its top ally. The US provides Israel with $3.8bn in military assistance annually, and the Biden administration has greenlit an additional $14bn since the war began.
