From 32m ago
Blinken: US is ‘determined to get a ceasefire that brings the hostages home’
Antony Blinken is in Tel Aviv today, and has already met with Israel’s president Isaac Herzog. Speaking to the media, the US secretary of state said “Even in these very difficult times we are determined to get a ceasefire that brings the hostages home – and to get it now. And the only reason that that wouldn’t be achieved is because of Hamas.”
“We also have to be focused on people who are suffering in this crossfire,” AFP reports Blinken said to Herzog. “Focused on getting them the assistance they need, the food, and medicine, the water or shelter is also very much on our minds,” Blinken said.
Blinken will later on Wednesday meet prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and make stops including Ashdod, the port near Gaza that was recently reopened by Israel to facilitate the additional deliver of humanitarian aid. NGOs and UN agencies have repeatedly stated that the amount of aid being allowed into the Gaza Strip by Israel falls far short of what is required. Israel has blamed logistical shortcomings by those supplying the aid for the problem.
It is understood that a proposed deal between Hamas and Israel would allow for a 40 day pause in fighting that would pave the way for the release of hostages and of Palestinian detainees held by Israel. About 130 Israelis are still believed held captive in Gaza, although not all of them are thought to be alive.
However, the picture was complicated yesterday when Netanyahu vowed that there would be a ground assault on Rafah to destroy Hamas, regardless of whether a deal was struck or not. Hamas had said it would respond to the proposals today.
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Antony Blinken is in Tel Aviv today, and has already met with Israel’s president Isaac Herzog. Speaking to the media, the US secretary of state said “Even in these very difficult times we are determined to get a ceasefire that brings the hostages home – and to get it now. And the only reason that that wouldn’t be achieved is because of Hamas.”
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“We also have to be focused on people who are suffering in this crossfire,” AFP reports Blinken said to Herzog. “Focused on getting them the assistance they need, the food, and medicine, the water or shelter is also very much on our minds,” Blinken said.
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Blinken will later on Wednesday meet prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and make stops including Ashdod, the port near Gaza that was recently reopened by Israel to facilitate the additional deliver of humanitarian aid. NGOs and UN agencies have repeatedly stated that the amount of aid being allowed into the Gaza Strip by Israel falls far short of what is required. Israel has blamed logistical shortcomings by those supplying the aid for the problem.
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secretary of state Antony Blinken (L) meets with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv, on 1 May.","caption":"US secretary of state Antony Blinken (L) meets with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv, on 1 May.","credit":"Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/AFP/Getty Images"}},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":"
It is understood that a proposed deal between Hamas and Israel would allow for a 40 day pause in fighting that would pave the way for the release of hostages and of Palestinian detainees held by Israel. About 130 Israelis are still believed held captive in Gaza, although not all of them are thought to be alive.
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However, the picture was complicated yesterday when Netanyahu vowed that there would be a ground assault on Rafah to destroy Hamas, regardless of whether a deal was struck or not. Hamas had said it would respond to the proposals today.
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Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
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An Israeli assault on Gaza’s southern city of Rafah is “on the immediate horizon”, according to UN aid chief Martin Griffiths.
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“The world has been appealing to the Israeli authorities for weeks to spare Rafah,” he said in a statement, adding “the simplest truth is that a ground operation in Rafah will be nothing short of a tragedy beyond words.”
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On Tuesday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to proceed with an offensive on Rafah even if renewed efforts at internationally brokered talks with Hamas result in the release of hostages and a ceasefire.
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Antony Blinken is set to meet with Netanyahu on Wednesday, in talks that the US hopes will advance a temporary ceasefire agreement that would also see Israeli hostages released from Gaza.
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More on that in a moment, first here’s a summary of the day’s other main news.
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The UK’s deputy foreign secretary, Andrew Mitchell, has told lawmakers in London that in the present circumstances, it was “not easy to see” how an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip could be “compliant with international humanitarian law”.
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António Guterres has said there has been “incremental progress” toward averting “an entirely preventable, human-made famine” in the northern half of Gaza, but much more is urgently needed. He specifically called on Israel to follow through on a promise to open “two crossing points between Israel and northern Gaza, so that aid can be brought from Ashdod port and Jordan.”
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The top UN court has rejected a request by Nicaragua to order Germany to halt military and other aid to Israel and to renew funding to the UN aid agency in Gaza. The International Court of Justice said that legal conditions for making such an order weren’t met. However, it did not throw out the case entirely, as Germany had requested. The court said it remained deeply concerned about conditions in Gaza.
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More than 34,535 Palestinians have been killed and 77,704 have been wounded during the Israeli military offensive in Gaza since 7 October, the Hamas-led Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. The Gaza Civil Emergency Service has estimated that the bodies of a further 10,000 Palestinians were under the rubble of hundreds of destroyed buildings. It said those figures had not been included in the updated health ministry death toll, which only registers bodies that are taken to hospitals.
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Unrwa commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini has said that Unrwa staff who have been interrogated by Israeli security forces are being “pressured to state that the agency is politically affiliated”.
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The UK said it was not ready to restore funding to the Palestinian relief agency Unrwa. Foreign secretary, David Cameron, said no UK decision on restoring funding will be made until the outcome of a UN internal investigation into Israeli allegations that 12 Unrwa staff took part in the Hamas assault on Israel on 7 October.
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","elementId":"85e9df59-5f64-4ec2-a55f-cde4863070a9"}],"attributes":{"pinned":false,"keyEvent":true,"summary":false},"blockCreatedOn":1714543936000,"blockCreatedOnDisplay":"07.12 BST","blockLastUpdated":1714543835000,"blockLastUpdatedDisplay":"07.10 BST","blockFirstPublished":1714543936000,"blockFirstPublishedDisplay":"07.12 BST","blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone":"07.12","title":"Welcome and summary","contributors":[],"primaryDateLine":"Wed 1 May 2024 07.53 BST","secondaryDateLine":"First published on Wed 1 May 2024 07.12 BST"}],"filterKeyEvents":false,"id":"key-events-carousel-mobile"}” config=”{"renderingTarget":"Web","darkModeAvailable":false,"assetOrigin":"https://assets.guim.co.uk/"}”>
Key events
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that several Palestinians have been killed this morning by an airstrike on Gaza City. It claimed “Israeli warplanes targeted a house on al-Jalaa Street, killing several Palestinian civilians and injuring others.”
The claims have not been independently verified.
Here is a video clip, via Kan, of the protest outside Antony Blinken’s hotel in Tel Aviv.
מפגינים להשבת החטופים מחוץ למלון קמפינסקי בת"א תומכים בבלינקן ובממשל האמריקני: "בביידן אנחנו בוטחים להחזרת כולם"@AnnaPines_ pic.twitter.com/tCDQrLx5Ec
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) May 1, 2024
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מפגינים להשבת החטופים מחוץ למלון קמפינסקי בת”א תומכים בבלינקן ובממשל האמריקני: “בביידן אנחנו בוטחים להחזרת כולם”@AnnaPines_ pic.twitter.com/tCDQrLx5Ec
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) May 1, 2024
Israeli media reports that demonstrators have gathered in Tel Aviv outside the hotel where Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state is staying.
Haaretz reports that at the protest outside the Hotel Kempinski they have been chanting “In Blinken we trust, to bring them home to us” and “Bring them home, all of them, now”.
Rachel Fink reports that “One of the demonstrators is reading out the names of the 133 hostages still in Gaza, as the crowd responds ‘now’ after each name. Demonstrators are also temporarily blocking the road in front of the hotel, in coordination with the police.”
In Scotland, protesters have formed a blockade outside weapons manufacturer BAE Systems in Govan, Glasgow, in protest over the Israel-Gaza conflict and calling for an immediate ceasefire to halt the killing of civilians in Palestine.
France’s foreign minister Stéphane Séjourné will travel to Cairo on Wednesday in an unscheduled stop during his Middle East tour as efforts to secure a truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza reach a critical point, a French diplomatic source has told the Reuters news agency.
Blinken: US is ‘determined to get a ceasefire that brings the hostages home’
Antony Blinken is in Tel Aviv today, and has already met with Israel’s president Isaac Herzog. Speaking to the media, the US secretary of state said “Even in these very difficult times we are determined to get a ceasefire that brings the hostages home – and to get it now. And the only reason that that wouldn’t be achieved is because of Hamas.”
“We also have to be focused on people who are suffering in this crossfire,” AFP reports Blinken said to Herzog. “Focused on getting them the assistance they need, the food, and medicine, the water or shelter is also very much on our minds,” Blinken said.
Blinken will later on Wednesday meet prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and make stops including Ashdod, the port near Gaza that was recently reopened by Israel to facilitate the additional deliver of humanitarian aid. NGOs and UN agencies have repeatedly stated that the amount of aid being allowed into the Gaza Strip by Israel falls far short of what is required. Israel has blamed logistical shortcomings by those supplying the aid for the problem.
It is understood that a proposed deal between Hamas and Israel would allow for a 40 day pause in fighting that would pave the way for the release of hostages and of Palestinian detainees held by Israel. About 130 Israelis are still believed held captive in Gaza, although not all of them are thought to be alive.
However, the picture was complicated yesterday when Netanyahu vowed that there would be a ground assault on Rafah to destroy Hamas, regardless of whether a deal was struck or not. Hamas had said it would respond to the proposals today.
Overnight Israel’s military has said that it again struck inside southern Lebanon, claiming to have targeted “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure and a military structure in the area of Blida in southern Lebanon, as well as terrorist infrastructure and observation posts in the areas of Odaisseh and Meiss El Jabal.”
Israel and anti-Israeli forces have had near constant fire between them since 7 October. About 60,000 Israelis have been evacuated from their homes in northern Israel as a result of the skirmishing, while about 90,000 people in southern Lebanon have been forced from their homes by the fighting.
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
An Israeli assault on Gaza’s southern city of Rafah is “on the immediate horizon”, according to UN aid chief Martin Griffiths.
“The world has been appealing to the Israeli authorities for weeks to spare Rafah,” he said in a statement, adding “the simplest truth is that a ground operation in Rafah will be nothing short of a tragedy beyond words.”
On Tuesday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to proceed with an offensive on Rafah even if renewed efforts at internationally brokered talks with Hamas result in the release of hostages and a ceasefire.
Antony Blinken is set to meet with Netanyahu on Wednesday, in talks that the US hopes will advance a temporary ceasefire agreement that would also see Israeli hostages released from Gaza.
More on that in a moment, first here’s a summary of the day’s other main news.
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The UK’s deputy foreign secretary, Andrew Mitchell, has told lawmakers in London that in the present circumstances, it was “not easy to see” how an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip could be “compliant with international humanitarian law”.
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António Guterres has said there has been “incremental progress” toward averting “an entirely preventable, human-made famine” in the northern half of Gaza, but much more is urgently needed. He specifically called on Israel to follow through on a promise to open “two crossing points between Israel and northern Gaza, so that aid can be brought from Ashdod port and Jordan.”
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The top UN court has rejected a request by Nicaragua to order Germany to halt military and other aid to Israel and to renew funding to the UN aid agency in Gaza. The International Court of Justice said that legal conditions for making such an order weren’t met. However, it did not throw out the case entirely, as Germany had requested. The court said it remained deeply concerned about conditions in Gaza.
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More than 34,535 Palestinians have been killed and 77,704 have been wounded during the Israeli military offensive in Gaza since 7 October, the Hamas-led Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. The Gaza Civil Emergency Service has estimated that the bodies of a further 10,000 Palestinians were under the rubble of hundreds of destroyed buildings. It said those figures had not been included in the updated health ministry death toll, which only registers bodies that are taken to hospitals.
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Unrwa commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini has said that Unrwa staff who have been interrogated by Israeli security forces are being “pressured to state that the agency is politically affiliated”.
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The UK said it was not ready to restore funding to the Palestinian relief agency Unrwa. Foreign secretary, David Cameron, said no UK decision on restoring funding will be made until the outcome of a UN internal investigation into Israeli allegations that 12 Unrwa staff took part in the Hamas assault on Israel on 7 October.