Blinken arrives in Tel Aviv as Israel mobilizes along its border with Gaza
TEL AVIV, Israel — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Thursday in the first leg of a diplomatic tour in the Middle East to show support with Israel following deadly attacks by Hamas militants based in the Gaza Strip.
Blinken's arrival also comes as a humanitarian crisis is beginning to unfold in Gaza. And the diplomatic push is taking place as Israel and Gaza experience the most dramatic escalation in violence in recent memory, with concerns the chaos could spread to the occupied West Bank and different countries across the Middle East.
Blinken will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders. On Wednesday, Netanyahu announced the formation of a wartime unity government that includes opposition leader and former army commander Benny Gantz.
Blinken also will try to secure the freedom of hostages kidnapped by Hamas from last weekend's incursion into Israel. There are an estimated 150 people being held hostage by Hamas, including an unknown number of Americans.
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Later Thursday, Blinken will travel to Amman to meet Jordan's King Abdullah II. Blinken will then meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman on Friday. There, Blinken will urge Abbas to condemn the violence. Such a declaration would put Abbas in a difficult position, a senior U.S. official said, but Blinken will tell the Palestinian leader that it is important to distinguish himself from Hamas, an organization that the U.S. and Israel have declared a terrorist organization. Palestinian Authority officials have privately told American leaders that they are horrified at the violence against Israeli civilians, the U.S. official said.
The current fighting began with a surprise attack by Palestinian fighters from Gaza into Israel last weekend during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. Militants infiltrated Israel's border last Saturday using paragliders, motorbikes and boats and fired thousands of rockets toward the country from Gaza. Israel has responded by launching missile strikes into Gaza
Overnight heading into Thursday, Israel continued to mobilize troops along the country's border with the Gaza Strip and extended its bombardments. The Associated Press reported that Israeli military Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said Thursday that forces "are preparing for a ground maneuver if decided," but the country's political leadership has not yet ordered one.
Also on Thursday, the Israeli state broadcaster KAN announced that 1,300 Israelis are known to have been killed by the Hamas attacks. The number of Palestinians in Gaza killed by Israeli air strikes since the weekend has now reached at least 1,350, according to officials in Gaza, with more than half those killed women and children. An additional 51 Palestinians were killed overnight into early Thursday, Gaza officials said.
At least 22 U.S. citizens died in the fighting in Israel, the U.S. State Department said. President Biden confirmed Tuesday that Americans are among the hostages held by Hamas, but did not say how many. Other countries, such as China, France and the United Kingdom, have also reported citizens killed or missing in the conflict.
At least 340,000 civilians in Gaza have been forced to flee their homes, the U.N. said.
Blinken is also expected to push for the creation of a corridor to allow Gaza civilians to safely leave the Gaza Strip, which has been under constant bombardment from Israel. Live television footage on Thursday morning showed huge plumes of smoke rising from buildings in Gaza. More than 2 million Palestinians have lost access to electricity, water, food and fuel supplies from outside of Gaza after Israel put the territory under full siege.
Increasingly dire conditions in Gaza
In addition to the growing number of Palestinians killed, more than 5,800 people have been wounded by Israeli bombs since Saturday, officials in Gaza said.
President Biden is urging Israel publicly and privately to get humanitarian supplies into Gaza. The U.S. is asking Israel to "introduce some sort of respect for humanitarian concerns into their equations," a senior U.S. official said.
Hamas, which governs Gaza, said Wednesday that the territory would be plunged into "complete darkness" within the day. Hours later, Gaza's main power plant shut down. Israel has put Gaza under complete siege, barring the entry of fuel, food, water, medicine and more into the territory.
All of the Gaza Strip's borders are closed, leaving Palestinian civilians with nowhere to escape or seek safety. Around one-tenth of Gaza's population of about 2.3 million people is internally displaced. Many have sought shelter in U.N.-run schools.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees said 11 of its employees were killed in the Gaza Strip.
Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza after the Hamas militant group took control of the territory in 2007. Egypt was sending in some aid through its border with Gaza but has stopped these deliveries since Tuesday due to Israel's airstrikes of the Gaza side of the border crossing.
Israel buries its dead
Israelis held funerals for those killed in Saturday's attack, when militants from the Gaza Strip infiltrated Israel, attacking communities along the country's southern border.
Militants overran a police station and military positions. They gunned down revelers at a dance music festival near Israel's border with Gaza, killing more than 200 people. They raided gated communities and shot families dead, and Israeli officials estimate they took at least 100 hostages to the Gaza Strip.
Hamas is expected to try to use the hostages in bargaining to free some of the thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, but the group insists it will not negotiate while Gaza is under attack.
Hamas' military wing, Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, threatened to execute a civilian hostage every time civilians in Gaza die in their homes from Israeli airstrikes that come without warning. No such publicly known execution has yet been carried out.
NPR's Aya Batrawy and Kevin Drew contributed to this report.
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