Tel Aviv – Secretary of State Antony Blinken will make another trip to the Middle East next week as the US tries to boost support for a ceasefire proposal in the Israel-Hamas war announced last week by President Biden.
Blinken will make stops in Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Qatar, the White House said, where he will “discuss with his partners the need to reach a ceasefire agreement that ensures the release of all hostages.”
The announcement comes just one day after international scrutiny about an Israeli airstrike on a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, where thousands of Palestinian civilians had taken refuge. Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, said at least 35 people were killed in the strike.
Dozens of terrorists were hiding behind the refugees, according to Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari, using civilians as human shields.
Hamas “systematically operates from schools, UN facilities, hospitals and mosques,” Hagari said.
Two independent weapons experts told CBS News that it appears Israel used US-made GBU-39 bombs in Thursday's attack. the same ones used in a Air attack of May 26 in a camp for displaced Palestinians in central Gaza that left at least 45 dead.
Last month, the United States halted an arms shipment over concerns the munitions would be used in Israel's ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Mr. Biden he also said in an interview at the time that “I am not supplying the weapons that have historically been used to deal with Rafah.”
It puts the US in a precarious position as it is behind some of Israel's munitions as well as some of Gaza's humanitarian aid.
Almost two weeks ago, the long awaited dock built by the US military broke up in rough seas. The pier was reconnected on Friday.
However, in just eight days that the dock was previously operational, only a small number of aid trucks reached Gaza, and several of them were looted.
In the midst of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu coming to Washington, DC, next month to speak at a joint meeting of Congress on July 24.
It is unknown whether Netanyahu will meet with President Biden, given Mr. Biden's growing frustration with Netanyahu's conduct of the war, says Israeli diplomat and staunch Netanyahu critic Alon Pinkas.
“People, according to the polls, are beginning to believe that they are prolonging the war for no military or political reason other than their own survival,” Pinkas said.
Chris Livesay
