US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to revive ceasefire talks to end the war in Gaza and pressed for more aid to be allowed to enter the Palestinian territory.
Blinken arrived in Israel on Tuesday on his 11th visit to the Middle East since the war in Gaza began more than a year ago. It is his first trip to the region since Israel escalated its conflict with Hezbollah late last month.
The visit got off to an inauspicious start as Hezbollah launched medium-range missiles towards Tel Aviv, temporarily shutting down Ben Gurion Airport, where Blinken landed, according to Israeli media.
At the meeting in Jerusalem, the US official pressed Netanyahu to “capitalise” on Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week in order to bring the war in Gaza to an end.
Blinken “underscored the need to capitalise on Israel’s successful action to bring Yahya Sinwar to justice by securing the release of all hostages and ending the conflict in Gaza in a way that provides lasting security for Israelis and Palestinians alike,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said after the talks.
Blinken also “emphasised the need for Israel to take additional steps to increase and sustain the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza and ensure that assistance reaches civilians throughout Gaza,” Miller said.
Netanyahu’s office said Sinwar’s killing “may have a positive effect on the return of the hostages, the achievement of all the goals of the war, and the day after the war”.
But there was no mention of a possible ceasefire after a year of war in which Hamas’s military capabilities have been greatly degraded and Gaza largely reduced to rubble, with the vast majority of its 2.3 million Palestinian residents displaced.
The US State Department said Blinken and Netanyahu also discussed ways of implementing a long stagnant 2006 UN resolution passed after the last Israel-Hezbollah war that would restore security and calm along the Israel-Lebanon border and allow civilians on both sides to return home.
But as Blinken met Israeli leaders, Hezbollah ruled out entering negotiations with Israel while fighting continues, and it claimed responsibility for a drone attack targeting Netanyahu’s holiday home on Saturday.
In his statement, Netanyahu also stated a need for change in the security and political situation in Lebanon that would allow Israelis to return safely to their homes that had come under Hezbollah rocket fire.
Change of strategy
Israel’s conflict with the Iran-linked armed group Hezbollah in Lebanon has intensified in recent weeks after a year of cross-border fighting.
Early on Tuesday, Hezbollah said it had launched volleys of rockets at two Israeli military bases near Tel Aviv as well as a naval base in Haifa.
Israel declared a state of emergency in the Tel Aviv area, and the country’s emergency service said a man was wounded by falling fragments in the northern town of Ma’agan Michael.
“This is the first time we’ve seen medium-range missiles being used by Hezbollah,” said Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from Hasbaiyya in southern Lebanon.
“Just last week, Hezbollah said they were going to change their strategy when it came to dealing with Israel,” he noted, suggesting that the group appears likely to launch similar medium-range weapons “again and again” in the future.
In Lebanon, the Ministry of Public Health reported that 18 people, including four children, were killed and at least 60 others wounded in an overnight Israeli attack near Rafik Hariri University Hospital in southern Beirut.
Limited hopes
The backdrop of violence to Blinken’s visit serves to illustrate the sparse hope that his visit will result in a breakthrough.
“The rhetoric from Prime Minister Netanyahu and many others in his government as well as the Israeli opposition is in a tone of defiance, so it is an uphill battle at this stage,” Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom said, reporting from Amman, Jordan.
That said, former Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin said he hopes the trip will at least “contribute to the option of a ceasefire”.
“It really is time to end this war. We are all paying a very high price. We are all suffering,” he told Al Jazeera.
After Israel, Blinken is also scheduled to visit Jordan on Wednesday and discuss humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip, an official on the plane with him said.
