A new warning. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday that Washington still opposes an Israeli assault on the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, according to a Department of Defense spokesperson. ‘State. A project which the Hebrew State still refuses to give up, despite international cries of warning.
In a meeting with the Israeli leader, Antony Blinken “reiterated the clear US position on Rafah” regarding the ground assault on the city, Matthew Miller said. The discussions between the two men, first one-on-one, then extended to their colleagues, lasted two and a half hours. In recent weeks, the Secretary of State, like President Joe Biden, has increased his statements hostile to this project.
Opposition also displayed by many other capitals and by the UN, who fear carnage among the approximately 1.5 million civilians crowded there, the vast majority displaced. “The truth is that a ground operation in Rafah will simply be an unspeakable tragedy,” warned the head of UN humanitarian affairs, Martin Griffiths, on Tuesday evening, when the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe”. The president of the Palestinian Authority, for his part, called on Washington to prevent a “disaster” in Rafah.
“Enter Rafah, with or without agreement”
But Benjamin Netanyahu still refuses to give up this offensive project. The Israeli Prime Minister reiterated on Tuesday that he was determined to carry out a ground assault in Rafah, a city he considers to be the last Hamas stronghold in the Gaza Strip. “The idea of stopping the war before having achieved all our objectives is out of the question. We will enter Rafah and eliminate the Hamas battalions there, with or without a truce agreement, he said.
Antony Blinken, who is carrying out his seventh mission to the Middle East since the start of the war, also welcomed an “improvement” in the delivery of aid to Gaza since Israel authorized in April, under American pressure, the opening more access to the Palestinian territory. And called on Benjamin Netanyahu to continue on this path, said the spokesperson, quoted by the American media ABC News. After the cold of winter, displaced families in Rafah are now suffering from the rising heat, and find themselves threatened, without running water, by the spread of disease and famine.
For his part, the head of French diplomacy Stéphane Séjourné went to Israel on Tuesday to meet his counterpart Israel Katz, and the discussions were to focus on the “risk of an offensive in Rafah on which (France) has already marked a very, very strong opposition,” according to a French diplomatic Source. “I reaffirmed our position to stop the escalation; release of hostages, cease fire, de-escalation in Lebanon,” also indicated the French Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The American Secretary of State also said he was determined to secure a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas “now”. He called on the Palestinian movement to accept the latest proposal, which provides for a 40-day truce and the exchange of hostages kidnapped during the October 7 attack and taken to Gaza for Palestinian prisoners incarcerated by Israel.
According to Matthew Miller, Antony Blinken discussed this truce agreement with the Israeli Prime Minister and estimated that “it is Hamas which is blocking the path to the ceasefire”. According to an Israeli official, Israel will wait until “Wednesday evening” for a response from Hamas before deciding whether it will send a delegation to Cairo with a view to a possible agreement.
In the 7th month of a devastating war triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on October 7 against Israel, Israeli aerial bombardments on the Gaza Strip have seen no respite, killing at least 33 people in the last 24 hours, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
