Middle East Updates:
Blinken Calls for End to Gaza War
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday called for Israel to allow Palestinians back into Gaza as well as ensuring aid can be delivered to the embattled enclave. Speaking in Brussels, the departing US diplomat said Israel had achieved its aims in Gaza and should now end the war as it continues to spread across the region.
"The situation is so difficult and so dramatic that to fully redress it, to fully answer the needs of people, the best way to do that is to end the war," Blinken said.
US secretary of state said Israel had accomplished its goals of dismantling the military wing of Hamas, which initiated this latest war with an unprovoked attack on Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023, and ensuring that no similar attack could be launched by the militant Islamist group again.
"Israel, by the standards it set itself, has accomplished the strategic goals it set for itself. So this should be a time to end the war." Blinken added that hundreds of aid trucks in Gaza could not distribute relief supplies due to looting and other crimes. "It's imperative that that be addressed. Israel has responsibilities to do that. We're also working with Egypt," he said.
Additionally, Blinken called for "real and extended pauses" in the fighting in much of Gaza "so that the assistance can effectively get to people who need it." The US had initially set a 30-day deadline for Israel to takes steps to make sure aid gets delivered to Gaza or face cuts to US-Israel arms shipments. That deadline has passed with no noticeable improvement in the humanitarian situation.
Hezbollah claims Israel attacks
The Iran-back Islamist militia Hezbollah on Wednesday announced that it had carried out drone attacks against Israel. A statement released by the group said it had launched a drone attack targeting Hakirya military base, which houses Israel's military headquarters and ministry of defense in the city of Tel Aviv.
The Lebanese militant group said it conducted an "aerial attack with a squadron of exploding drones" on the site housing Israel's main defense institutions in the commercial hub. The Israeli military said that it intercepted two drones and 40 projectiles launched from Lebanon and that the attack had caused no injuries. The statements did not specify what sites had been targeted.
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