Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Tuesday on his 11th visit to the region since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.
The United States wants to revive ceasefire efforts following the killing of top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, but so far all warring parties appear to be on board with the ceasefire.
Israel is still at war with Hamas, more than a year after the militant group's Oct. 7 attack, and with Hezbollah, which launched a ground invasion in Lebanon earlier this month.
Israel is also expected to attack Iran in response to Iran's October 1 ballistic missile attack.
Blinken landed just hours after Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets into central Israel, setting off air raid sirens in populated areas of the country and at the international airport, without causing any significant damage or injuries.
The Israeli military said it intercepted most of the five projectiles, with one landing in an open area. At about the same time, it announced that another 15 projectiles were fired from Lebanon toward northern Israel.
In another development, the death toll from an Israeli airstrike late Monday that destroyed several buildings facing one of Beirut's main hospitals rose to 13.
Lebanon's Health Ministry said 57 other people were injured in the airstrike, seven of them in critical condition.
The newspaper said the airstrike caused significant damage to Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the country's largest public hospital, in Beirut's southern suburbs.
The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah targets, but not the hospital itself, without providing details.
Blinken is expected to focus on the Gaza issue.
Ahead of his visit, the State Department announced that Blinken would focus on ending the war in Gaza, securing the release of Hamas hostages and alleviating the suffering of Palestinian civilians.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Mr. Blinken would emphasize the need to significantly increase the amount of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza, citing a letter Mr. Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin wrote to Israeli officials last week. It was revealed in
The letter reminded Israel that the Biden administration could be forced by U.S. law to cut some military aid if the delivery of humanitarian aid continues to be hampered.
Blinken's previous trips have achieved little in terms of ending hostilities, although he has succeeded in the past in increasing aid deliveries to Gaza.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar are brokering months of talks between Israel and Hamas, with the militants seeking to strike a deal that would see the release of dozens of hostages in exchange for an end to the war, a permanent ceasefire and the release of Palestinians. . prisoners.
But Israel and Hamas accused each other of making new and unacceptable demands over the summer, and negotiations were suspended in August. Hamas says its demands have not changed after Sinwar's killing.
US and Iran step up aid efforts ahead of expected Israeli attack
Blinken is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior government officials. After Israel, he is expected to visit a number of Arab countries, including Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has crisscrossed the region in recent days to drum up support ahead of Israel's threat of retaliatory strikes.
Speaking in Kuwait on Tuesday, he said Gulf Arab states were committed not to allow their territory to be used for Israeli attacks.
“All our neighboring countries have assured us that they will not allow their lands and skies to be used against Iran,” Aragushi said, according to state news agency IRNA.
“This is the expectation of all friendly and neighboring countries, and we consider this a sign of friendship.”
Gulf Arab states such as the UAE and Qatar have large-scale military facilities, and there are concerns that they could become embroiled in a full-scale regional war. Iran has repeatedly said it will respond to Israeli attacks.
War intensifies in Lebanon and northern Gaza
The United States has also been trying to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, but tensions escalated last month after a series of Israeli airstrikes killed the militant group's top leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his senior commanders. These efforts ended in failure.
Israel is currently carrying out a major new operation in the already devastated northern Gaza Strip, where hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in the past two weeks, according to local health officials.
In Lebanon, Israel continued to carry out heavy airstrikes in southern Beirut and across southern and eastern Lebanon, areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence.
Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets, missiles and drones into Israel, including some that have reached populated areas of the country.
Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking another 250 hostages.
About 100 of the prisoners are still being held in Gaza, and a third of them are thought to have died.
Israeli attacks have killed more than 42,000 Palestinians and injured tens of thousands more in the Gaza Strip, according to local health officials, who did not specify the number of fighters but said more than half were women and children. There is.
It also caused massive destruction across the territory, displacing approximately 90% of the population of 2.3 million people.
