US Secretary Blinken in Saudi to push for Gaza truce and aid deliveries

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to discuss efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and ramp up aid deliveries to the Palestinian territory.

The US top diplomat touched down in Jeddah where he was to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, said an AFP journalist on board, the first stop on Blinken’s sixth Middle East tour since the Israel-Hamas war started on October 7.

Blinken will travel to Israel this week as part of his sixth urgent mission to the Middle East.

The visit comes amid a flurry of calls, planned trips by US and Israeli officials and public airings of severe disagreements over the state of the conflict and what will happen to Gaza after the war ends.

The State Department said the Israel stop would cap Blinken’s latest Mideast tour that started in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and will continue in Egypt on Thursday. The top US diplomat will be in Tel Aviv on Friday after talks with Arab leaders and foreign ministers in Jeddah and Cairo focused on the war in Gaza.

“In Israel, Secretary Blinken will discuss with the leadership of the government of Israel the ongoing negotiations to secure the release of all hostages,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. “He will discuss the need to ensure the defeat of Hamas, including in Rafah, in a way that protects the civilian population, does not hinder the delivery of humanitarian assistance, and advances Israel’s overall security.”

Fighting around Gaza’s largest hospital raged on for a third day on Wednesday as the Israeli military said it had arrested hundreds of Palestinians during its raid at Shifa Hospital. Gaza officials said thousands of Palestinian patients, medical staff and others were trapped inside the sprawling complex, although the military said it allowed passage for those who wanted to leave.

Palestinians evacuate the body of a man killed in a Israeli raid at the Nur Shams refugee camp in West Bank. AFP

Mourners earlier in the day held funeral prayers outside a different hospital for 28 people killed in three separate Israeli airstrikes on urban refugee camps the previous night.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is determined to carry out a Rafah ground offensive, even as tensions between Israel and the United States intensify.

At least 31,819 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, mostly women and children make up two-thirds of the dead. A United Nations food agency warned that “famine is imminent” in northern Gaza.

Tensions between the US and Israel over the prosecution of the Gaza war have been mounting for months over rising civilian casualties. And they have intensified as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said he will ignore President Joe Biden’s warnings not to start a large-scale ground operation in the southern city of Rafah without credible plans to protect innocent Palestinians who have sought refuge there.

Biden, facing a tough re-election campaign ahead of November’s presidential election, is under growing domestic pressure to rein in Israel’s military response to the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel. Opposition to the war in the United States, Arab nations and much of the rest of the world has shaped the evolution of Blinken’s frequent trips to the region since October.

His first two visits were largely focused on re-affirming US support for Israel in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attacks, but as civilian Palestinian casualties began to multiply and humanitarian conditions in Gaza deteriorated, his emphasis shifted to boosting humanitarian assistance and protecting innocents.

Since late last year, Blinken has also used his visits to stress the importance of Arab support for “day after” plans for Gaza and trying to coax Israeli leaders into accepting a status for the Palestinians that could help ensure Israel’s long-term security.

At least 31,819 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

In a phone call with Biden on Monday, their first in more than a month, Netanyahu agreed to send a high-level delegation to Washington to discuss plans for the proposed Rafah operation, and the Pentagon said Tuesday that Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant would visit the US capital next week.

Saudi Arabia announced Wednesday it will donate $40 million to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which has faced massive funding cuts and calls for its abolition spearheaded by Israel.

The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) said the funds would support UNRWA’s “humanitarian relief efforts in the Gaza Strip”, where the Israel-Hamas war has raged for more than five months.

“The funding will provide food for more than 250,000 people and tents for 20,000 families,” KSrelief said in a statement.

The UN agency, created in 1949, has come under heavy scrutiny after Israel accused about a dozen of its employees of involvement in the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel.

Multiple countries have suspended their aid, although the United Nations has said that Israel has not provided it with any evidence for the allegations.

The UN has launched both an internal and an independent investigation into the claims.

Agencies