Blinken Arrives In Israel For Talks As Gaza Offensive Continues

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Friday for urgent talks with Israeli officials about their escalating war with Hamas in Gaza.

This is Blinken’s third trip to Israel in less than a month since the conflict erupted after Hamas’ October 7 terror attack. Blinken will also visit Jordan and may make additional stops on the region over the weekend.

Blinken will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials on the trip, which comes at a highly charged and sensitive time as Israel encircles Gaza City at the same time as international criticism of its tactics increases over many civilian casualties.

President Joe Biden has called for a “humanitarian pause” in the fighting in order to arrange the evacuation of dual Palestinian citizens and foreigners still trapped in Gaza as well as try to secure the release of more than 200 hostages that Hamas is holding and to increase the supply of desperately needed humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza.

Blinken will again stress Israel’s right to defend itself but will also be making the case for Israel to respect the rules of war in its assaults in Gaza as well as to begin to consider post-war scenarios for how the territory can be run if and when it succeeds in eradicating Hamas.

For the past week, the administration has been pushing the importance of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a two-state resolution, saying that is the only way to establish a durable and lasting peace. However, neither the current Israeli nor Palestinian leaderships have shown interest in negotiations to that end, which have failed multiple times since the 1990s.