U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will focus primarily on making certain {that a} ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas holds throughout his go to to the area later on Monday, and work to get help delivered to the folks of Gaza, a senior State Department official mentioned.
Washington has “each hope and expectation” that the ceasefire, brokered by Egypt and now in its fourth day after 11 days of hostilities, will hold, the U.S. official suggested in a call with reporters but said it was too early for wider peace talks.
Blinken will travel to Jerusalem, Ramallah, Cairo and Amman through Thursday and meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah and other top officials.
U.S. President Joe Biden, in announcing the visit, said he had asked the top U.S. diplomat to make the trip following diplomatic efforts that sought to pause the worst outbreak in fighting between Israel and Hamas in years.
“Our primary focus is on maintaining the ceasefire, getting the assistance to the people who needed,” the official, talking on the situation of anonymity, mentioned, however repeatedly indicated that Washington believed it was untimely to make an effort to kick begin any longer-term peace talks.
“The United States stays dedicated to the two-state answer…We aren’t wavering from that in any manner. It’s most likely untimely right now to ask the events to Washington or anyplace else,” the official said.
Analysts say there is little chance of reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and a key reason is the deep divisions within both societies. On the Palestinian side these are between Hamas, which holds sway in Gaza, and the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank and within Israel, which has held four elections in the past two years without producing a clear winner.
The divisions on the Palestinian side even complicate efforts to get aid delivered to the people of Gaza, the enclave blockaded by Israel since 2007 and ruled by militant group Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the United States. The U.S. official acknowledged the difficulty.
“It presents significant challenges….We hope, eventually – to a reintegration to some extent of the Palestinian Authority in Gaza,” he mentioned. Palestinian officers put reconstruction prices at tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in Gaza, the place medical officers mentioned 248 folks have been killed in the course of the preventing.
Beyond saying that he anticipated the United Nations to take the lead function on channeling help to Gaza, the senior U.S. official didn’t tackle intimately who would monitor the usage of the help on the bottom to forestall civilian objects reminiscent of pipes from being was rockets by Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
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