The Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, stated this Monday in Ankara that humanitarian assistance to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip will be increased in the coming days due to the talks that he has held these days in the various capitals. Region of. “We have made progress on the issue of humanitarian aid in recent days […]. We are working tirelessly to bring more humanitarian assistance to Gaza and have several concrete ways to do so. “I think that in the coming days you will see that assistance will be significantly expanded to bring more help to Gaza to the people who need it,” the US diplomacy chief said before speaking at the Gaza Strip airport boarded a plane to Japan. Turkish capital. In addition to talking about aid to the people of Gaza, Turkish authorities also called on Blinken to mediate to promote a ceasefire in Gaza.
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In Ankara, Blinken met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan for two and a half hours, longer than originally scheduled in both agendas. There was no joint press conference at the end of the meeting. In previous statements, Fidan has defended the cessation of hostilities and a peace proposal in the region that includes restoring the two-state plan (which Blinken also shares) and deploying interim international forces. Ankara also presents itself as an “international guarantor” of a future Palestinian state – in a role similar to that in Cyprus – a proposal to which no one in the region has so far given a positive response. As confirmed to Portal by a foreign source on Monday, the Turkish minister precisely communicated to the American envoy the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Blinken already threw cold water on this possibility over the weekend, arguing that it could be used by Hamas to “reorganize.”
Turkey was the final stop on Blinken’s second Middle East trip since the start of the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, which also took him to Tel Aviv (Israel), Amman (Jordan), Ramallah (West Bank) and Nicosia (Cyprus). ) and Baghdad (Iraq). The meetings were not as productive as expected, as Israel has currently not agreed to declare the “humanitarian pauses” recommended by Washington, although Blinken assured that his administration is working with Israel on “practical issues” in his last statement. “We recognize and share the deep concern here about the terrible price being paid by Palestinian civilians in Gaza. “We work every day in contact with the Israelis on measures that can reduce the number of civilian casualties,” Blinken said.
This is something that both Turkey and the rest of the region consider insufficient, which is why they insist on asking the head of American diplomacy to use his influence on Israel to stop the bombings.
Release of the hostage
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For his part, the North American State Department envoy explained that he had asked the representatives of Turkey, Egypt and Qatar to “use their relations” with Hamas to help release the hostages (more than 200) captured by the Islamist organization, which Palestine still maintains in Gaza. Blinken said his release was a “critical” condition for declaring a pause in Israel’s bombing of Gaza, although he also acknowledged that the pause itself “could help move forward on the hostage issue.”
Authorities in the countries Blinken visited have agreed to prevent the conflict from spreading to other areas. “We are ensuring that countries in the region use their influence and relationships to prevent this conflict from spreading,” he said. Already this Sunday, Blinken in Iraq warned the Iranian-backed militias and armed groups that they “should not take advantage” of the conflict in Gaza to attack US troops, which has happened in recent weeks and that in the capitals of Iraq The The Middle East has increased fears of a regional conflict.
There in Baghdad, Blinken was seen wearing a bulletproof vest after calls for protests and a threatening statement from a Shiite armed group. Security measures were also increased in Turkey following the arrival of the Foreign Ministry representative. An Islamist group hung a banner with a picture of Abu Obaida, the spokesman for Hamas’s military wing, and another accusing the U.S. representative of being a “baby killer” on a bridge that the convoy crossed with Blinken crossed from the airport. Ankara in the center of the Turkish capital.
On Sunday, Islamist demonstrators attempted to break into the Incirlik military base (Adana), the largest military complex used by the US military on Turkish soil, and were repressed by police using tear gas canisters and water cannons. On Sunday and Monday, Turkish riot police also cracked down on those who wanted to protest in front of the US embassy in Ankara.
Relations between Turkey and the United States are currently not at their best, as evidenced by the fact that when Blinken arrived in Ankara, he was received by a minor Foreign Ministry official, and not by Minister Fidan himself. It was a not-so-subtle way to protest Turkey’s exclusion from the chief of American diplomacy’s first trip to the region in mid-October. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also did not meet with Blinken, which the US delegation had expected. Although Turkey is one of NATO’s oldest members, the Turkish president has accused his Western partners of being the main perpetrators of the Gaza massacres because they allegedly gave carte blanche to his “pawn” Israel.
Temporary cessation of hostilities
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden spoke this Monday with Prime Minister Netanyahu about the possibility of introducing tactical pauses in the attacks on Gaza for humanitarian reasons. The Israeli prime minister has so far refused to accept a temporary cessation of hostilities demanded by Washington. However, the United States rejects the stable ceasefire demanded by Arab and European countries to allow humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip.
This decision does not appear to have been taken up in the joint statement by the directors of the main United Nations agencies, who consider it “unacceptable” that “an entire population is surrounded and attacked while depriving them of access to what is necessary for their survival essential is denied.” and their homes, shelters, hospitals and temples are bombed.”
Diplomatic talks continue on several fronts as the Israeli army in the Palestinian Mediterranean enclave tightens the siege of the capital of the Gaza Strip and divides the coastal area into two sectors after deploying tanks between the north and south of the Wadi wetland has Gaza Valley. According to the Palestinian Ministry, the air and artillery bombardments continued with devastating routine, with 450 targets on the night of Sunday to Monday and more than 250 fatalities in the last day, leaving more than 10,000 people dead (including 4,100 children). of health in Gaza as this Tuesday marks the first month of the war.
For UN Secretary-General António Guterres, these figures mean that Gaza has become a “graveyard of”. [más de 4.000] Children” inform Maria Antonia Sanchez-Vallejo from New York. “The Gaza nightmare is more than a humanitarian crisis. “It is a crisis of humanity,” emphasized the former Portuguese prime minister. For Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, they are a “disgrace.” “More than 30 minors [israelíes], including a nine-month-old baby who witnessed the murder of his parents in cold blood, are being held against their will in the Gaza Strip. “Hamas is the problem in Gaza, not Israel’s actions,” he said.
In the north, Hezbollah’s exchange of rocket fire from Lebanon and response with Israeli artillery fire continued for another day without the clashes leading to a military escalation.
Tension continues to rise in the West Bank. The army arrested 66 Palestinians this Monday, including 22-year-old activist Ahed Tamimi, who became an icon of the Palestinian cause five years ago after slapping a soldier who entered her home near Ramallah without authorization. Tamimi then served eight months in prison on the same charge of “incitement to violence” that the Israeli military authorities had now leveled against him.
In East Jerusalem, which has also been under military occupation since 1967, an Israeli police officer died this Monday after being stabbed by a Palestinian and shot by security forces. This is the third violent incident of its kind in the eastern part of the city in a month. Gaza also gradually restored telephone and internet services on Monday for the third time in a month, after being cut off by Israel on Sunday, according to telecommunications company Paltel.
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