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18-10-2023
WASHINGTON/ JERUSALEM: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced that President Joe Biden is set to pay a solidarity visit to Israel, soon after revealing that Tel Aviv agreed to devise a plan for providing humanitarian aid to Gaza’s civilians.
During the visit, the top US diplomat said Biden will discuss plans to reduce the number of civilian deaths during wartime, amid a rising humanitarian crisis, while preventing Hamas from benefiting.
Blinken announced his decision for the aid plan after 9 hours of negotiations with Netanyahu, which lasted until early Tuesday, after their meeting was disrupted by air raid sirens warning of incoming Palestinian rocket fire, forcing them to temporarily shelter in a bunker.
Blinken, on his fifth day of round-the-clock diplomacy in the region, returned to Israel after visiting six Arab countries in four days to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where Israeli bombardment has martyred over 2,800 Palestinians and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.
“Today, and at our request, the United States and Israel have agreed to develop a plan that will enable humanitarian aid from donor nations and multilateral organizations to reach civilians in Gaza,” Blinken told reporters.
Blinken said the US shared Israel’s “concern” that Hamas may seize or destroy aid entering Gaza, or prevent it from reaching people in need, Reuters reported.
“If Hamas in any way blocks humanitarian assistance from reaching civilians, including by seizing the aid itself, we’ll be the first to condemn it and we will work to prevent it from happening again,” Blinken said.
Blinken did not provide details on what the aid plan would look like.
President Biden to visit Israel
In addition, the top US official announced that Biden would visit Israel on Wednesday to demonstrate that the country’s closest partner “had the right to self-defence” following the Hamas weekend attack over a week ago.
“President Biden will receive a comprehensive brief on Israel’s war aims and strategy,” Blinken said.
“(The) president will hear from Israel how it will conduct its operations in a way that minimizes civilian casualties and enables humanitarian assistance to flow to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not benefit Hamas.”
Blinken was in Egypt on Sunday, where he said the country’s Rafah border crossing into Gaza would soon reopen, but a deal to allow aid in, and for some foreign citizens to leave, has yet to materialize. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
