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Blinken in Israel to push for Gaza truce; 13 killed in Lebanon
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is back in Israel to push for a ceasefire as Beirut’s largest public health facility was hit in an airstrike. Follow for updates.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Israel Tuesday to push for a ceasefire in Gaza after his administration called for an end to the war in Lebanon “as soon as possible”.
It is his 11th trip to the Middle East since Hamas’s attack on Israel more than a year ago triggered the Gaza war, and his first since Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah escalated late last month.
He is due to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials, as Israel weighs its response to Iran’s October 1 missile attack.
In Lebanon, Israel hit an area of south Beirut housing the country’s largest public health facility, killing 13 people, according to the health ministry.
The Rafic Hariri Hospital, located outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds, sustained minor damage in the strike which flattened four buildings in its vicinity, said an AFP correspondent in the area.
Previous US efforts to end the Gaza war and contain the regional fallout have failed, as did a bid spearheaded by President Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to secure a temporary ceasefire in Lebanon.
After Israel, Blinken will visit Jordan on Wednesday and discuss humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip, an official on the plane with him said.
Blinken also plans to speak to Israeli leaders about the expected strike on Iran and discourage any move that could massively escalate regional conflict, the official said.
On Monday, US envoy to Lebanon Amos Hochstein said his administration was seeking an end to the war “as soon as possible” as he pushed for a ceasefire based on a UN resolution that had ended an earlier Israel-Hezbollah war.
Under resolution 1701, Hezbollah should have withdrawn from areas in south Lebanon near the Israeli border, leaving only the country’s weak military and UN peacekeepers deployed there.
But Hezbollah remained south of Lebanon’s Litani River, and in October last year began launching low-intensity cross-border strikes into Israel, in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas.
After nearly a year of war in Gaza, Israel shifted its focus to Lebanon, vowing to secure its northern border to allow tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by the cross-border fire to return to their homes.
Israel ramped up its air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds around the country and on September 30 sent in ground troops, in a war that has killed at least 1,489 people since September 23, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.
The strike on Monday night came as Israel targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs with heavy fire following evacuation warnings.
The densely populated Ouzai neighbourhood a few kilometres (miles) from the city centre was hit for the first time in the conflict, sparking an exodus of residents.
The Israeli military said it was targeting Hezbollah’s naval unit, and that it had issued an evacuation warning.
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Originally published as Blinken in Israel to push for Gaza truce; 13 killed in Lebanon