COPENHAGEN: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday urged all parties in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians to protect civilians and said the United States is working intensively to an end to the violence.
“We have been working around the clock through diplomatic channels to try to bring an end to the conflict,” Blinken said at a joint briefing with Denmark’s foreign minister in Copenhagen.
The fighting entered a second week on Monday as Israel bombed targets in Gaza and Palestinian militants fired rocket barrages at Israeli cities.
Gaza health officials put the Palestinian death toll since the hostilities flared at 198, including 58 children and 34 women. Ten people have been killed in Israel, including two children, Israeli authorities say.
“The United States remains greatly concerned by the escalating violence. Hundreds of people killed or injured, including children being pulled from the rubble,” he said.
“We are ready to lend support if the parties (...) seek a cease-fire,” Blinken said.
Blinken said Israel has the right to defend itself, but said he had been alarmed that journalists and medical workers had been put at risk, in particular after Israel on Saturday destroyed a tower block in Gaza housing the offices of the US-based Associated Press and other news media.
The United States has requested additional details from Israel regarding the attack, Blinken said.
US working ‘intensively’ to bring Israeli-Palestinian violence to an end — Blinken
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US working ‘intensively’ to bring Israeli-Palestinian violence to an end — Blinken
Israel agrees to ‘limited reopening’ of Rafah crossing: PM’s office
- The announcement came after visiting US envoys reportedly pressed Israeli officials to reopen the crossing, a vital entry point for aid into Gaza
JERUSALEM: Israel said Monday it would allow a “limited reopening” of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt once it had recovered the remains of the last hostage in the Palestinian territory.
The announcement came after visiting US envoys reportedly pressed Israeli officials to reopen the crossing, a vital entry point for aid into Gaza.
Reopening Rafah forms part of a Gaza truce framework announced by US President Donald Trump in October, but the crossing has remained closed after Israeli forces took control of it during the war.
The Israeli military also said it was searching a cemetery in the Gaza Strip on Sunday for the remains of the last hostage, Ran Gvili, a non-commissioned officer in the police’s elite Yassam unit.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the reopening would depend on “the return of all living hostages and a 100 percent effort by Hamas to locate and return all deceased hostages,” Netanyahu’s office said on X.
It said Israel’s military was “currently conducting a focused operation to exhaust all of the intelligence that has been gathered in the effort to locate and return” Gvili’s body.
“Upon completion of this operation, and in accordance with what has been agreed upon with the US, Israel will open the Rafah Crossing,” it said.
