U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken waves as he boards an plane throughout his departure from Washington to journey to the Middle East, amid the Israel-Hamas battle, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., January 4, 2024.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to meet with the leaders of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia of their respective nations on Monday, forward of journey to Israel as Washington seeks to comprise regional spillover from the Israel-Hamas war.
“This is a second of profound stress for the area. This is a battle that might simply metastasize, inflicting much more insecurity and struggling,” Blinken informed reporters in Doha after assembly with Qatar’s management on Sunday.
The Middle East journey follows the assassination by drone of deputy Hamas chief Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut, which Hamas has blamed on Israel. Israel has not publicly taken accountability for the killing, which is one of the most recent flashpoints in its war with the Palestinian militant group which has been raging for 3 months and reveals no signal of subsiding.
Israeli troopers have additionally exchanged hearth with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants throughout Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.
Many U.S. officers now worry that the preventing will draw Hezbollah and Lebanon into the war, a shift that might see Iran up its involvement as effectively. Hezbollah, essentially the most highly effective militant and political group in Lebanon, has been described by analysts as having 10 instances the ability and army capabilities as Hamas.
Meanwhile, casualties in Gaza amid Israel’s relentless offensive proceed to climb. Gaza’s Hamas-run well being ministry says that greater than 22,800 folks have been killed and the overwhelming majority of the besieged enclave’s inhabitants has been displaced, because the United Nations and World Health Organization plead for extra humanitarian support as illness and hunger set in.
Blinken has often urged Israel to guarantee civilian protections and lamented that too many harmless Palestinians have been killed, however the Biden administration to this point reveals no signal of lowering or conditioning its army and monetary help of its shut ally.
The Israeli offensive started in response to the Oct. 7 terrorist assault by Hamas and different militant Palestinian teams, a violent rampage throughout southern Israel that killed 1,200 folks and took one other 240 hostage.