Liam Conner
Tel Aviv — Secretary of State Antony Blinken will make another trip to the Middle East next week as the US tries to increase support for a ceasefire proposal in the Israel-Hamas war announced last week by President Biden.
Blinken will make stops in Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Qatar, the White House said, where he will “discuss with partners the need to reach a ceasefire agreement that guarantees the release of all hostages.”
The announcement comes just one day after international scrutiny about an Israeli airstrike on a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, where thousands of Palestinian civilians were sheltering. Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, said at least 35 people were killed in the attack.
Dozens of terrorists were hiding behind the refugees, according to Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari, using civilians as human shields.
Hamas “systematically operates in schools, UN facilities, hospitals and mosques,” Hagari said.
Two independent weapons experts told CBS News that it appears Israel used U.S.-made GBU-39 bombs in Thursday’s attack, the same ones used on a May 26 air raid in a camp for displaced Palestinians in central Gaza that left at least 45 people dead.
Last month, the US halted an arms shipment due to concerns the munitions would be used in Israel’s ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Mr. Biden also said in an interview at the time that “I am not providing the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah.”
It puts the US in an uncertain position, being behind some of Israel’s munitions as well as some of Gaza’s humanitarian aid.
Almost two weeks ago, the long-awaited pier built by the US military collapsed in rough seas. On Friday, the pier was reconnected.
However, in the mere eight days that the pier was operational, only a small number of aid trucks managed to reach Gaza and several of them were looted.
Amid the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will come to Washington, D.C., next month to address a joint meeting of Congress on July 24.
It is unknown whether Netanyahu will meet with President Biden, given Biden’s growing frustration with Netanyahu’s handling of the war, says Israeli diplomat and outspoken Netanyahu critic Alon Pinkas.
“People, according to the polls, are starting to believe that he is prolonging the war for no military or political reason other than his own survival,” Pinkas said.
Chris Livesay
gshow ao vivo
email uol pro
melhor conteudo
mãe png
cadena 3
tudo sobre
absol
