US: On Wednesday, October 23, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that “now is the time” to put an end to the war in Gaza and encouraged Israel to refrain from escalating its confrontation with Iran.
Israel has vowed to retaliate for Iran’s October 1 missile attack and is engaged in combat with Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
After the military advised inhabitants of portions of the coastal city to evacuate in anticipation of operations against Hezbollah, official media in Lebanon reported an Israeli drone attack on Tyre.
A cloud of dense black smoke rose from the city after the hit, according to AFPTV video, and the warning triggered a fresh flight from the once-vibrant city situated on the Mediterranean coast.
Tyre’s crisis management unit chief, Mortada Mhanna, said, “The situation is very bad; we’re evacuating people.”
“You could say that the entire city of Tyre is being evacuated,” the unit’s media officer, Bilal Kashmar, said.
This is Blinken’s eleventh trip to the area since the war in Gaza began, and his first since Israel-Hezbollah hostilities turned into a full-scale conflict late last month.
According to an AFP count of Israeli government estimates, Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, strike on Israel sparked the war in Gaza and claimed 1,206 lives, the most of them civilians.
42,718 people have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory attack in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to estimates from the UN-recognized health ministry of the Hamas-run enclave.
“Israel has accomplished the majority of its strategic goals regarding Gaza since October 7th, a year ago… As he departed Israel after discussions with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other high-ranking officials, Blinken said, “Now is the time to turn those successes into enduring, strategic success.”
Blinken said that he saw “progress being made, which is good, but more progress needs to be made and, most critically, it needs to be sustained” in relation to assistance to Gaza.
Regarding Israel’s promise to strike back for Iran’s missile strike on October 1, the senior US official stated: “It’s also very important that Israel respond in ways that do not create greater escalation.”
Blinken will go to Saudi Arabia after Israel, which has halted negotiations for a normalization agreement with Israel until the establishment of a Palestinian state.
He called it an “incredible opportunity” to advance toward an agreement with Saudi Arabia, and the US envoy pushed Israel to take advantage of it.
Both President Joe Biden’s and his French colleague Emmanuel Macron’s attempt to arrange a temporary truce in Lebanon and previous US attempts to stop the conflict in Gaza and limit its regional repercussions have failed.
During Tuesday’s discussion with Netanyahu, Blinken pushed his friend to take advantage of the death of Hamas commander Yahya Sinwar in Gaza in order to push for a truce.
The strike that started the conflict in Gaza on October 7, 2023, was planned by Sinwar.
Netanyahu praised his death and stated it did not spell the end of the fight, but it may be the start of the end.
Additionally, 251 captives were returned to Gaza by the extremists. There are still 97 people detained there, including 34 that the Israeli military claims are dead.
According to US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, Blinken “underscored the need to capitalise” on Sinwar’s murder during his meeting with the Israeli prime minister in Jerusalem.
This is going to happen 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,” he said.
According to a statement from the prime minister’s office, Netanyahu informed Blinken that Sinwar’s passing “could have a positive impact on the return of the hostages.”.
As worries about the tens of thousands of people trapped by war in the inaccessible north grew, Blinken also pushed for additional supplies to be let into besieged Gaza.
This month, Israel vowed to prevent Hamas terrorists from reassembling in the region and began a significant air and ground attack in northern Gaza.
“No medicine or medical supplies” are available at the sole partly operational medical institution in the targeted region, Hossam Abu Safia, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, said.
“We are unable to stop people from dying on the streets. There are corpses on the streets.
After fighting Hamas in Gaza for over a year, Israel turned its attention to Lebanon in late September, promising to defend its northern border from Hezbollah’s attacks.
According to an AFP analysis of Lebanese health ministry data, Israel increased its airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds around the nation and deployed ground forces late last month in a conflict that has claimed at least 1,552 lives since September 23.
Hezbollah continued to strike Israel on Wednesday, claiming to have launched rockets targeting an Israeli military intelligence facility in the outskirts of Tel Aviv, a major commercial center.
The Israeli army said on Tuesday that it had carried out an airstrike three weeks ago that killed the Hezbollah cleric, who was predicted to replace the group’s deceased leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
Although Hashem Safieddine’s death has not been confirmed by Hezbollah, a high-ranking source close to the organization said that the militant commander has not been in communication since the attacks.
In a statement, Israeli army commander Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi declared, “We have reached Nasrallah, his replacement, and most of Hezbollah’s senior leadership.”
Following further appeals for civilians to leave the region, the Israeli military bombarded the southern suburbs of Beirut, a once heavy Hezbollah stronghold, once again on Tuesday.
