Blinken urges Israel to reach Gaza truce, allow more aid

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday to work towards a ceasefire in Gaza, also calling for more aid to reach the war-battered territory.

Blinken is on his 11th trip to the Middle East since Ocober 7, 2023, and his first since Israel’s conflict with Iran-backed Hezbollah escalated late last month.

During his meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Blinken “underscored the need to capitalise” on the Israeli military’s killing of Palestinian resistance movement (Hamas) leader Yahya Sinwar last week, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

Blinken also pressed for more aid to be allowed into the besieged Palestinian territory as concerns rise for tens of thousands of civilians trapped by fighting in the hard-to-reach north.

Israel promised to address US concerns over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, according to a US State Department official.

The UN Palestinian refugee agency called Tuesday for a temporary truce to allow people to leave areas of northern Gaza as health officials said they were running out of supplies to treat patients injured in a three-week-old Israeli assault.

On Tuesday, Gaza health officials said more than 20 people had been killed by Israeli forces. The bodies of dozens of people were on roadsides and under rubble, inaccessible to rescue teams because of ongoing strikes, they said.

Israeli military called on Palestinians to evacuate areas around the town of Beit Lahiya, just north of Jabalia where the offensive began earlier this month.

Many Palestinians fear the evacuation orders are part of an Israeli plan to clear the area to create a buffer zone that will enable Israel to control Gaza after the war.

The war in Gaza has devastated the Palestinian economy, which is now 35% smaller than it was at the start of Israel’s invasion a year ago, the United Nations development agency said.

UNDP said quality of life indicators such as health and education had been knocked back 70 years to the 1950s.

In northern Gaza, residents said Israeli forces had besieged hospitals, schools, and other shelters housing displaced families and ordered them to leave and head south. They said forces detained dozens of men.

42,718 Palestinians massacred in Gaza

At least 42,718 Palestinians have been killed and 100,282 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement Tuesday.