“I am quietly working with Israel to significantly reduce the presence of its army in Gaza,” said Joe Biden, the president of the United States, last night, in one of his clearest interventions on what he wants for Gaza. His Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, shortly afterwards landed in Tel Aviv after previously meeting with the leaders of Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Because three months after the start of the conflict in the strip, some and others are asking him to promote a ceasefire in Israel to de-escalate it. Everyone is pressuring Washington to use its influence in Jerusalem. But for now, nothing. For now everything is complicated just when Blinken sets foot in Israel.
Yesterday Hizbullah confirmed the death in Lebanon of Uisam al Tauil, one of its leaders in the elite Raduan forces, due to an alleged Israeli attack. Israel claims that it was at the forefront of the attacks these days against its positions on the border that have caused dozens of injuries in its ranks.
Prime Minister Beniamin Netanyahu, for his part, was visiting northern Israel yesterday and in Kiryat Shemona, a city that is a regular target of the pro-Iranian militia and that today is evacuated and occupied almost entirely by reservists, he launched: “Hizbullah committed a big mistake with us in 2006 and he is doing it now too. We will do what is necessary. “We prefer to do it without a wide-ranging campaign, but that won’t stop us.”
Benny Gantz, heavyweight in the national unity cabinet, emphasizes that Israel is interested in the diplomatic solution in Lebanon, but his words are always drowned out in the incessant noise of war that governs the region.
Late yesterday it was also reported that the Israeli Defense Forces had killed Hasan Hakashah in the Beit Jinn area in Syria, believed to be the leader of Hamas in Syrian territory to launch missiles against Israel.
The escalation of war in the Middle East has its new epicenter in the mountainous and now uninhabited northern border shared by Israelis, Lebanese and Syrians. And even more so after the death last week of Hamas’ number two in Beirut.
The fires are gathering, and Blinken, meanwhile, tries to smile before each meeting on his tour throughout the Middle East. He seeks to reduce the tension that today floods the entire region. Everything is little. But nothing seems to work. “No one said this would be easy,” he seemed to sigh next to his plane before flying to Tel Aviv last night. And he added: “I will pressure Israel to see that it is imperative to do more to protect civilians [in Gaza].”
And the solution seems to be in Gaza.
The Minister of Defense of Israel, Yoav Gallant, has assured since last week that the north of the strip is considered controlled, except for some pockets of unorganized resistance. He also says that a new phase is being faced in the offensive focused on the central and southern area, but that it is “less intense”; an adaptation of his strategy that on paper would be more precise, more in line with the objective of finding the Hamas leaders and freeing the 129 hostages in the hands of the Islamist organization. It is the one sued by the United States.
But according to reports from the hospitals in the strip that are located in the central areas, such as the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, which operates with barely 30% of its staff, dozens of patients arrive every few minutes due to new fighting.
Blinken’s mediation to reduce tension in the region becomes complicated before arriving in Israel tonight.
The scenario is incendiary, furthermore, also behind closed doors in Israel. Yesterday there were again demonstrations – albeit in a minority – in the streets, including at the entrance to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem, calling for the elections to be brought forward. And they continue the words of the far-right ministers who speak of “resettling” the Palestinians out of Gaza, although the US Secretary of State recalled on his stopover in Doha that the Palestinians of the strip “must be able to return to their homes as soon as the conditions permit” and that they should not be “pressured” to abandon their besieged enclave. They are “irresponsible, incendiary” words, he concluded. His persuasiveness will be seen in the coming hours.
Meanwhile, in Israel, missile alerts are repeated day after day, whether from Gaza or Lebanon. At the same time, in the West Bank, at least three more Palestinians were killed in Tulkarem yesterday.
Blinken assured this Monday after passing through the main capitals of the region that there continues to be “clear interest” in Arab countries to normalize their relations with Israel, but that to do so it is necessary to stop the war in Gaza and establish a Palestinian State. And Josep Borrell, high representative of the EU for foreign policy, is trying to do so in Saudi Arabia, where he discussed yesterday with the Saudi Foreign Minister, Faisal bin Farhan, “the steps” to “translate into action” the international consensus on the establishment of a Palestinian state that ends the conflict. Both objectives are, for now, very far away.
