Blinken to Israel: Reducing Gaza casualties an 'absolute imperative'
The top US diplomat's meetings with Israeli officials come after President Joe Biden said he was “quietly working” to get Israel out of Gaza.
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken is returning to Israel and carrying the same message he delivered on each of his four previous visits since Hamas’ October 2023 attack.
“I will press on the absolute imperative to do more to protect civilians and to do more to make sure humanitarian assistance is getting into the hands of those who need it,” Blinken told reporters before departing Saudi Arabia for Israel on Monday.
Protecting civilian lives and increasing aid to the impoverished Palestinian enclave are among Blinken's long list of priorities in Israel, which is one of nine stops on the secretary of state’s latest whirlwind trip to the region. His visit comes after the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said Sunday that more than 23,000 people, mainly civilians, have been killed in Israel’s campaign against the militants.
A record number of journalists are among the dead. Among them is Hamza al-Dahdouh, the 27-year-old son of veteran Al Jazeera correspondent Wael al-Dahdouh, who already lost his wife and several other children in the Israeli bombardment. Blinken called the younger journalist's death an “unimaginable tragedy.”
