Jerusalem, Oct 22 (EFE).- United States State Secretary Antony Blinken arrived Tuesday in Tel Aviv to meet with authorities and promote negotiations for the agreement for the release of Hamas hostages and the ceasefire in Gaza.
Blinken will also try to moderate Israel’s imminent attack on Iran, in retaliation for the launch of some 180 ballistic missiles from the Islamic republic against its territory on Oct. 1.
The attack was framed as an Iranian response to the Israeli bombing campaign in Lebanon, which killed the leader of the Shiite armed group Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah.
Iran also called the attack a consequence of the death of the former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in an explosion in Tehran that Israel never claimed or denied.
Blinken will be in Israel until Friday, but the State Department has not yet said which other countries he will visit.
It is his 11th visit to the region since the Hamas attack in October 2023, when militants killed 1,200 people and kidnapped another 251, and prompted Israel’s operations against the enclave in response, which have so far caused more than 42,600 deaths.
It is also the first time Blinken has traveled to Israel since the military killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in a Wednesday raid in the Gaza Strip.
“… Secretary Blinken will discuss the importance of bringing the war in Gaza to an end, securing the release of all hostages, and alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people,” State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
Blinken will also participate in talks to design a post-conflict plan for Gazans once they are freed from “Hamas tyranny” and will insist that Israel must allow more food and medicine into the Gaza Strip.
He will also address the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah on the border with Lebanon and call for the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 of 2006. This established the cessation of hostilities, the deployment of the Lebanese army in the south of the country, and the disarmament of Hezbollah.
The US has been involved in mediation for the past year, with Qatar and Egypt, to get Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement to declare a ceasefire in the offensive on Gaza and release the hostages.
With the death of Sinwar in an Israeli operation, Washington says the greatest obstacle to an agreement between the parties has been removed and believes that an opportunity has opened to end the war. EFE
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