Antony Blinken has warned Israeli leaders that more needs to be done to provide humanitarian aid to civilians in besieged northern Gaza, raising possible consequences under US law if action is not taken. The US secretary of state met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, and senior military officials in a series of meetings in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as part of a regional tour that Washington sees as a chance to revive diplomacy after Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza last week.
The account of Blinken’s face-to-face message to the Israelis comes despite mounting criticism that the US has failed to stem the rate at which civilians have been killed in Gaza because it has been unwilling to use its supply of weapons to Israel as leverage. Washington has consistently rejected the criticism.
Blinken also pressed the Israeli leadership over reports that its military has been implementing a so-called “generals’ plan” in northern Gaza, a tactic described as using mass forced displacement of civilians and a surrender-or-starve tactic against all who remain. The Israelis told them the tactic was “absolutely not” their policy, to which the Americans responded that their Israeli counterparts then needed to make this clearer publicly.
Aid groups have warned that civilians in northern Gaza risk starvation amid Israel’s military siege. Israel says its offensive there is focused on Hamas fighters, while the US has warned it not to try to forcibly displace residents to the south of Gaza, where 1.7 million civilians are crammed into a dangerously overcrowded area at “lethal risk” of disease.
A statement issued by Netanyahu’s office after the meeting made no mention of humanitarian assistance but stressed the “Iranian threat” against Israel and the need for the US and Israel to “unite” against them.
(BBC)
