TEL AVIV — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday “now is the time” to end the conflict in Gaza, and urged Israel to avoid further escalation with Iran.
Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and has pledged to hit back against Iran’s October 1 missile strike.
In Lebanon, the Israeli military issued a new evacuation call for the south Lebanese city of Tyre on Wednesday, warning of impending operations targeting Hezbollah.
The warning sparked a new exodus from the once vibrant city, which is perched on the Mediterranean coast.
“The situation is very bad, we’re evacuating people,” said Mortada Mhanna, who heads Tyre’s disaster management unit.
“You could say that the entire city of Tyre is being evacuated,” said Bilal Kashmar, the unit’s media officer.
Blinken’s visit to the region is his 11th since the start of the war in Gaza and his first since Israel-Hezbollah violence escalated to all-out war late last month.
The war in Gaza began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed 42,718 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry which the UN considers reliable.
“Since October 7 a year ago, Israel has achieved most of its strategic objectives when it comes to Gaza… Now is the time to turn those successes into enduring, strategic success,” Blinken said as he departed Israel, following meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials.
On aid to Gaza, Blinken said he saw “progress being made, which is good, but more progress needs to be made and, most critically, it needs to be sustained”.
Of Israel’s pledge to retaliate for Iran’s October 1 missile attack, the US top diplomat said: “It’s also very important that Israel respond in ways that do not create greater escalation.”
After Israel, Blinken will visit Saudi Arabia, which has put on hold talks towards a normalisation deal with Israel until a Palestinian state is created.
The US diplomat urged Israel to seize what he described as an “incredible opportunity” to move towards a deal with Saudi Arabia.
Previous US efforts to end the Gaza war and contain the regional fallout have failed, as did a bid spearheaded by President Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to secure a temporary ceasefire in Lebanon.
In his meeting with Netanyahu on Tuesday, Blinken urged his ally to seize on the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza to work towards a ceasefire.
Sinwar was the architect of the October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the Gaza war.
Hailing his killing, Netanyahu said it did not mean the war was over, though he added that it could be the beginning of the end.
The militants also took 251 hostages back into Gaza. Ninety-seven are still being held there, including 34 the Israeli military has said are dead.
During his meeting with the Israeli premier in Jerusalem, Blinken “underscored the need to capitalise” on the death of Sinwar, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
