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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Blinken met Netanyahu in Israel as US ramps up push for a ceasefire | |
deal | |
By Jennifer Hansler, CNN | |
Updated: | |
1:51 PM EDT, Wed May 1, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held another round of high-stakes | |
talks in Israel on Wednesday as the US seeks to ratchet up the pressure | |
on Hamas to while also seeking to forestall an Israeli military | |
offensive in Rafah and further address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. | |
The top US diplomat arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday after stops in – | |
capping off his seventh round of shuttle diplomacy in the region since | |
Hamas’ October 7 attack. | |
Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for about | |
two and a half hours, first privately and then with the US and Israeli | |
delegations. | |
In that meeting, Blinken “discussed ongoing efforts to reach an | |
immediate ceasefire in Gaza as part of a hostage deal and emphasized | |
that it is Hamas that is standing in the way of a ceasefire,” | |
according to a readout from the US State Department. The top US | |
diplomat voiced that message publicly in remarks in a meeting earlier | |
on Wednesday with Israeli President Isaac Herzog. | |
Blinken also reiterated to Netanyahu “the United States’ clear | |
position on Rafah,” the State Department readout said. | |
In a remarks to the press before departing Israel for Washington, | |
Blinken said that the US position on a large-scale Israeli military | |
offensive in Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have fled, | |
“won’t change.” | |
“We cannot, will not support a major military operation in Rafah, | |
absent an effective plan to make sure that civilians are not harmed – | |
and no, we’ve not seen such a plan,” Blinken said, noting that | |
there are ongoing conversations with the Israelis about “better | |
ways” to deal with Hamas. | |
Despite warnings from Blinken and other top Biden officials, the | |
Israeli prime minister has continually said he would carry out such an | |
operation with or without a ceasefire deal, and with or without US | |
support. | |
Although US officials said Tuesday they do not view an Israeli military | |
operation into the southern Gaza city as imminent, it has the potential | |
to scuttle the fragile negotiations to secure a ceasefire and the | |
release of the hostages. The pressure around reaching such a deal has | |
only grown as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepens and domestic US | |
political pressure continues to mount. | |
Protests in opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza have broken out at | |
universities across the US, some of which have been forcibly dispersed | |
by massive police deployments. | |
In Israel, too, there have been protests calling for the government to | |
make a deal to bring home the hostages held by Hamas. Blinken greeted | |
some of these protesters who had gathered outside his meeting with | |
Herzog in Tel Aviv, telling them that the US will “not rest until | |
everyone” is back home. | |
Following his meetings in Tel Aviv, Blinken traveled to Kibbutz Nir� | |
Or, which was immensely impacted by the October 7 Hamas attack. During | |
this visit, Blinken stopped at the home of the Kedem Siman Tov family, | |
where all five members of the family were killed – Tamar Kedem Siman | |
Tov, 35; Yonatan “Johnny” Siman Tov, 36; 5-year-old twin | |
daughters, Shahar and Arbel; and son Omer, 2. Johnny, Shahar, Arbel and | |
Omer were American citizens, according to the State Department. | |
He also visited Kerem Shalom, a key border crossing that has been | |
central to getting aid into Gaza. Blinken pushed Israeli officials to | |
do more not only to get the critically needed aid into the enclave, but | |
also to make sure it is accessible to those in need. At Kerem Shalom, | |
Blinken received a closed briefing on humanitarian aid and | |
deconfliction, according to the traveling press, and then was given a | |
tour of the crossing, accompanied by Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav | |
Gallant and UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for | |
Gaza Sigrid Kaag | |
US officials have painted a ceasefire agreement as a linchpin to vastly | |
improve the humanitarian crisis. They have signaled some optimism about | |
the potential of reaching such an agreement, which would also include | |
the release of the hostages held by Hamas, after Israel put forward | |
what Blinken described Monday as an “extraordinarily generous” | |
proposal. | |
On Wednesday, Blinken again called on Hamas to accept the proposal on | |
the table, suggesting that it was as good a deal as the group was going | |
to get. | |
“There is no time for delay. There is no time for further haggling. | |
The deal is there. They should take it,” he told the press in Israel. | |
“Israel has made very important compromises in the proposal that is | |
on the table, demonstrating its desire and willingness to get this | |
agreement and get it done,” Blinken said. | |
Negotiators from Egypt, Qatar, the US, and Hamas gathered in Cairo as | |
the latter considered that calls for the group to release as many as | |
33 hostages kidnapped from Israel in exchange for a pause in | |
hostilities in Gaza, an Israeli source familiar with the negotiations | |
and a foreign diplomatic source told CNN earlier this week. | |
Israel helped craft that proposal but has not fully agreed to it, | |
sources said. An Israeli delegation also participated in the meeting in | |
Cairo, an Israeli official told CNN Wednesday. | |
Hamas on Wednesday warned that Israel won’t achieve through | |
negotiations and “pressure” what it has been unable to achieve | |
through nearly seven months of war. | |
“Netanyahu and all his supporters are disgracefully imagining that | |
they would achieve through pressure and political machinations what | |
they could not achieve with war fire,” Izzat Al-Rishq, a member of | |
Hamas’ political bureau, wrote on Telegram. | |
Al-Rishq did not reject the proposal but implied Hamas was not yet | |
ready to agree to it. He said Israel has “poured tons of lava and | |
explosives on Gaza and did not break the resistance. God forbid they | |
could extract through negotiations what they were unable to achieve | |
through war.” | |
Even as the US seeks to secure a deal that it says will improve the | |
long-term situation in Gaza, Blinken pushed Israeli officials to do | |
more in the immediate term to address the humanitarian catastrophe in | |
the coastal enclave. | |
Humanitarian crisis | |
Blinken’s visit is his latest since the deadly Israeli in Gaza in | |
early April. That strike, which the Israel Defense Forces claimed | |
responsibility for, sparked immense furor and the most pointed calls | |
yet from the Biden administration for Israel to protect civilians and | |
take more action to address the humanitarian situation in the war-torn | |
strip. | |
“If we don’t see the changes that we need to see, there’ll be | |
changes in our own policy,” Blinken warned at a news conference last | |
month. | |
In his meeting with Netanyahu Wednesday, Blinken “discussed the | |
improvement in the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza since the call | |
between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu on April 4 and | |
reiterated the importance of accelerating and sustaining that | |
improvement,” the readout from the State Department said. | |
Although Israel had committed to changes – opening new crossings, | |
allowing more trucks into Gaza, creating a deconfliction mechanism – | |
it has been slow to institute them. The Biden administration has also | |
faced criticism from aid officials who say they are preoccupied with | |
counting trucks, rather than addressing the whole crisis. | |
On Wednesday, Blinken said there has been “real, meaningful | |
progress” on humanitarian aid “that is starting to make a | |
difference for people in Gaza,” but the progress must be | |
“accelerated” and “sustained.” | |
He said aid trucks were able to access north Gaza via the Erez crossing | |
for the first time on Wednesday, and also pointed to the soon-to-be | |
operational US maritime channel. | |
Still, “as we focus on all of the necessary inputs, the number of | |
trucks that are moving, what matters the most is the impact. And | |
we’re focused on measuring that, making sure that people are actually | |
getting what they need, that it’s being delivered to them,” he | |
said. | |
The top US diplomat also said Tuesday it is “critically important | |
that there be a clear, affirmative list of items of products that are | |
required for the well-being of people in Gaza … and that we don’t | |
have arbitrary denials of products that need to get into Gaza.” | |
This story has been updated with additional developments. | |
Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified Israeli | |
Ambassador Michael Herzog in a photo caption provided by the pool. | |
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