US defends its veto of call for Gaza cease-fire
Israel taps top legal minds to battle genocide claim at world court
Gaza ceasefire protests block New York City bridges
Tel Aviv: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke Wednesday to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas about reforming his government as Blinken sought to rally the region behind postwar plans for Gaza that include concrete steps toward a Palestinian state.
The U.S. is pushing for a reformed Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza once the war is over. Blinken says multiple countries in the region have agreed to help rebuild the territory and that wider Israeli-Arab normalization is still possible, but only if there is “a pathway to a Palestinian state.”
In their meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Blinken told Abbas that the U.S. supports “tangible steps” toward a Palestinian state, according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. He said the two discussed administrative reform.
The vision outlined by Blinken faces serious obstacles. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has so far rejected Palestinian Authority control in Gaza and adamantly opposes the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. The autocratic, Western-backed Palestinian leadership, whose forces were driven from Gaza when Hamas took over in 2007, lacks legitimacy in the view of many Palestinians.
The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight, fueling a humanitarian catastrophe in the tiny coastal enclave. The fighting has also stoked escalating violence between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants that has raised fears of a wider conflict.
On his fourth visit to the region since the war began three months ago, Blinken has met in recent days with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey. He says they are open to contributing to postwar plans in return for progress on creating a Palestinian state.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said Wednesday it has found evidence that hostages were present in an underground tunnel in the Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, which has become the focus of Israel’s ground offensive.
The military showed the tunnel to journalists who were escorted into a neighborhood near the ruins of destroyed homes and streets. A corrugated tin hut covered the tunnel’s entrance in a residential yard.
The military says Hamas is operating from inside the tunnels, and military officials have made the destruction of the tunnel system a top goal. Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfus, commander of the military’s 98th Division, described the tunnels as posing “a 720-degree threat.”
“It’s not 360, but it’s 720, underground and overground,” Goldfus said.
