Blinken to head back to Middle East on Sunday

 

A Palestinian worker walks amid debris at a water desalination plant that was hit during a strike in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, June 7, 2024. [AFP]

U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading back to the Middle East on Sunday in hopes of persuading Israel and Hamas militants to accept a cease-fire agreement designed to halt the fighting, release hostages and get more humanitarian aid into the war-torn Gaza Strip.

A State Department release on Friday said the top U.S. diplomat would emphasize the importance of Hamas' acceptance of the cease-fire proposal on the table — one outlined in a speech by President Joe Biden a week ago — that is nearly identical to one Hamas endorsed last month. Blinken’s three-day trip will include stops in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Qatar.

Blinken’s latest visit to the region comes as Israel’s offensive in Gaza continues at full speed. Israeli tanks and warplanes blasted central and southern areas of the enclave overnight and into Friday. Reuters, citing local medical officials, reported at least 28 Palestinians were killed.

In northern Gaza, Palestinian emergency workers said three people were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit a U.N.-run school. The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas gunmen operating from inside the school.

Israel used the same explanation Thursday after an airstrike on a school operated by the U.N. relief agency UNRWA in the central Gaza Nuseirat refugee camp. The Gaza Ministry of Health said the strike killed 40 people.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that he found the claim that Hamas was operating out of the school shocking and that his agency was unable to verify it.

In a report issued Friday, the U.N. Human Rights Office said the airstrike on the Nuseirat camp school suggested a failure of the Israeli military to ensure strict compliance with international humanitarian law.

Tensions between the U.N. and Israel escalated further Friday when Israeli U.N. envoy Gilad Erdan said he had been notified that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was adding Israel's military to a global list of offenders who have committed violations against children.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a post on his X social media account, fired back, writing, "Today, the U.N. added itself to the blacklist of history when it joined those who support the Hamas murderers. The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] is the most moral army in the world; no delusional U.N. decision will change that."

The report is compiled annually by the secretary-general, documenting the killing, maiming, sexual abuse, abduction or recruitment of children, denial of aid access, and targeting of schools and hospitals. It will formally be published and presented to the 15-member Security Council on June 18.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military said a temporary pier for delivering aid into Gaza by sea, which broke apart in stormy weather in late May, has been reconnected to the beach.

Food and other supplies will begin to flow into Gaza “as soon as possible … in the coming days,” U.S. Central Command’s deputy chief, Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, told reporters Friday.

Hamas on October 7 launched a terror attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, and capturing about 250 hostages. Hamas is holding about 120 of the hostages in Gaza, although the Israeli military says at least 37 of them are dead.

Israel's retaliatory bombardments and ground offensive have killed at least 36,600 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.