(The Age, 10/1/2024)
Tel Aviv, Israel: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called on Israel to work with moderate Palestinian leaders on plans for a post-war Gaza.
Israel has so far ruled out calls to allow the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza and instead talked about maintaining open-ended military control over the territory.
The US has said a “revitalised” authority should return to Gaza.
“Israel must stop taking steps that undercut the Palestinians’ ability to govern themselves effectively,” Blinken said Tuesday.
The authority was ousted from Gaza when Hamas seized power in 2007.
Blinken faced tough talks with Israeli leaders on Gaza’s post-war future, while Israel’s military pushed ahead with its offensive in the beleaguered territory, including heavy bombardment and fighting that shook refugee camps.
The fighting sent Palestinians scrambling to find safety and hampered aid groups’ efforts to get relief to the population.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday AEDT in Tel Aviv, Blinken dismissed the South African genocide case against Israel as “meritless”.
Blinken said the case, filed in the International Court of Justice, is a distraction from efforts to halt the Israel-Hamas war.
“It is particularly galling, given that those who are attacking Israel — Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, as well as their supporter Iran — continue to call for the annihilation of Israel and the mass murder of Jews.”
The UN world court is set to begin hearing South Africa’s case on Thursday.
Blinken said he had promises from four Arab nations and Turkey to help rebuild Gaza after the war. But those nations also want to see an end to the fighting in Gaza and concrete steps toward the eventual creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, something Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed not to allow.
The US and Israel also remain deeply divided over how Gaza will be run when — and if — its current Hamas rulers are defeated. American officials have called for the Palestinian Authority, which currently governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to take the reins in Gaza.
Israeli leaders have rejected that idea but have not put forward a concrete plan beyond saying they will maintain open-ended military control over the territory.
At the same time, Blinken is trying to prevent an all-out war between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. After an Israeli strike last week hit Beirut, killing Hamas’s deputy leader, the two sides have stepped up their exchanges.
“There is lots to talk about, in particular about the way forward,” Blinken said after meeting Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
On Tuesday, Hezbollah said its exploding drones targeted the Israeli army northern command in the town of Safed — deeper into Israel than previous fire by the group. The Israeli military said a drone fell at a base in the north without causing damage, suggesting it had been intercepted. Military officials did not identify the base.
The United States has pressed Israel to scale down its offensive in Gaza to more precise operations targeting Hamas. But the pace of death and destruction has remained largely the same, with several hundred Palestinians killed each day, according to health officials in Gaza.
Israel has vowed to keep going until it destroys Hamas throughout the territory, in response to the attack on October 7, when militants killed some 1200 people, mainly civilians, in southern Israel and kidnapped around 250 others.
Still, after three months of fighting, Hamas continues to put up a fierce fight.
The Israeli military says it has dismantled Hamas infrastructure in northern Gaza, where large swaths of the cityscape have been demolished. But fighting continues there against what Israel says are pockets of militants. The offensive’s focus has shifted to the southern city of Khan Younis and a number of urban refugee camps in central Gaza.
“It is particularly galling, given that those who are attacking Israel … continue to call for the annihilation of Israel and the mass murder of Jews.”
“The fighting will continue throughout 2024,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari said.
Since the war began, Israel’s assault in Gaza has killed more than 23,200 Palestinians, roughly 1 per cent of the territory’s population, and more than 58,000 people have been wounded, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
About two-thirds of the dead are women and children. The death toll does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
AP