Antony Blinken, head of American diplomacy, is already in Israel. It is his fourth visit to the Jewish State since the massacre of October 7, but now, three months after the Gaza war began and more than 23,000 deaths later in the Palestinian enclave, the spiral of violence spreads through the region . Blinken meets today with Israeli leaders and seeks, as he confessed before landing in Tel Aviv, to “pressure” to de-escalate the war in the strip just a day after an Israeli offensive in Syria and Lebanon killed two Hizbullah leaders and Hamas.
But the context works against it. Hours after his arrival, Hizbullah attacked the Israeli army’s northern command headquarters in the city of Safed with drones. It was his response to the murder on Monday of his special forces commander, Uisam al Tauil, the highest-ranking casualty in the ranks of the pro-Iran militia since the start of the crossfire with Israel three months ago. The Israeli Defense Forces, for their part, killed three members of Hizbullah in Lebanese territory.
The seriousness of the escalation is also summarized in the fact that in northern Israel, alerts for missile and drone attacks have sounded this morning up to three times in a single hour. And the fighter jets were crossing quickly through the sky on their way to the northern border. Or that the Al Aqsa hospital in the center of the strip reports dozens of new deaths.
It also signals the delicate moment in the region that the content of the meeting with Prime Minister Beniamin Netanyahu has not yet been disclosed. And that Blinken plans to meet with the war cabinet of national unity and the ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs. In an eloquent gesture, his meeting with the member of the war cabinet and main opposition figure to Prime Minister Benny Gantz is also confirmed.
Blinken’s first meeting was, however, with the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, who expressed his discomfort over the lawsuit filed by South Africa before the International Court of Justice accusing the Jewish State of genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. “There is nothing more atrocious and absurd,” said Herzog. The case will begin its hearings this Thursday and the Israeli leader points out that “we will proudly present our case for the use of self-defense by virtue of our most inherent right under international humanitarian law,” he assured.
For his part, the head of US diplomacy said he would share what he had heard from countries in the region. “There is a lot to talk about, particularly about the way forward [in Gaza],” he said after visiting Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, as well as Turkey and Greece before that.
And the American diplomat arrives in Tel Aviv after stopping in all the Middle Eastern countries that in one way or another are involved in the growing tension in the region. Everyone asks him to promote a ceasefire in Israel to de-escalate the conflict. Everyone is pressuring Washington to use its influence in Jerusalem. The Secretary of State has announced that he will “speak about the direction the military campaign in Gaza will take” and that he will “insist on the absolute imperative” for Israel to “do more to protect civilians.”
In Gaza there seems to be the solution to the violent spiral that is flooding the Middle East. But in the strip the death toll now exceeds 23,000, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, and the offensive has forced 85% of the population to move. It causes a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, according to the UN.
Repeated Israeli attacks in Lebanon and Syria, in addition to the escalation of attacks against US forces in Iraq and the campaign against ships in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthi rebels supporting Hamas, increase fears that the rest of the East Middle is swept up in the conflict in Gaza.
