Blinken tells Israel to avoid 'further civilian harm' in Gaza

In a Tel Aviv meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the secretaryof state reaffirmed US "support for Israel's right to prevent the terroristattacks of October 7 from being repeated", said State Department spokesmanMatthew Miller.
But Blinken also "stressed the importance of avoiding further civilian harmand protecting civilian infrastructure in Gaza", said Miller about theHamas-run territory where more than 23,000 people have died in the war, localhealth officials say.
For the longer term, Miller said, Blinken "reiterated the need to ensurelasting, sustainable peace for Israel and the region, including by therealisation of a Palestinian state".
Netanyahu met Blinken -- who was on his fourth round of Middle East crisisdiplomacy since the war broke out -- on a day when the Israeli army againbombed Gaza and battled Hamas fighters.
An AFP correspondent reported intense strikes overnight in Khan Yunis andRafah, the biggest cities in the south of Gaza which are crowded withinternally displaced people.
The army said its forces had killed 40 militants over the past 24 hours in"expanded ground operations including air strikes" in Khan Yunis, and thattroops had seized AK-47 assault rifles, rocket launchers and other weapons.
The Gaza war broke out after Hamas gunmen launched their October 7 attackthat resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according toan AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants of Hamas, considered a "terrorist" group by the United States andEuropean Union, also took around 250 hostages. Israel says 132 of them remaincaptive, including at least 25 believed to have been killed.
Israel has responded with relentless bombardment and a ground invasion ofGaza that have killed at least 23,210 people, mostly women and children,according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.
The Israeli army says its death toll inside Gaza had risen to 185 afternine soldiers were killed on Monday.             
- 'Heavy price' -                 
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, speaking in Qatar on Tuesday, argued that theOctober 7 attack "came after an attempt to marginalise the Palestinian cause".
He charged that, "despite the heavy price, the massacres and the war ofgenocide, it (Israel) failed to achieve any of its goals."
In further comments, released later by Hamas in Gaza, he called on Muslimstates "to support the resistance with weapons, because this is... not thebattle of the Palestinian people alone".
The war has displaced most of Gaza's 2.4 million people, and the UnitedNations says many are at risk of famine and disease.
With only minimal aid entering Gaza, Israeli human rights group B'Tselemcharged that "everyone in Gaza is going hungry" as the "direct results ofIsrael's declared policy".
Since the war started, fears have also grown of an escalating conflictbetween Israel and its other regional enemies, a loose alliance of Iran-backedarmed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Israel has traded cross-border fire with Hezbollah for three months andmore recently killed senior operatives of the Shiite Muslim militant group aswell as of Hamas on Lebanese soil.
Hezbollah said Tuesday it had launched a drone attack on Israel's "northerncommand centre" in Safed as part of its response to the killings of Hamasdeputy leader Saleh al-Aruri and Hezbollah field commander Wissam Tawil.
The Israeli army confirmed that a "hostile aircraft" had come down at oneof its bases in the north and said that "no injuries or damage were reported".
The Israeli army also said Monday it had killed a "central" Hamas figure inSyria, Hassan Akasha, who had led "terrorist cells which fired rockets...toward Israeli territory".             
- 'Culture of hatred' -                 
Blinken also voiced hope that, after the war, Israel could push on with itsefforts towards regional integration, following its US-brokered normalisationdeals with the United Arab Emirates and other states.
"I think there actually are real opportunities there, but we have to getthrough this very challenging moment," Blinken said after meeting ForeignMinister Israel Katz on the latest leg of a tour that has already taken him toQatar and Saudi Arabia.
As the ground offensive continues, the Israeli army has claimed to havelargely achieved military control over northern Gaza, and said that the war isnow entering a new phase.
Army spokesman Daniel Hagari, speaking to The New York Times, said the nextphase would involve fewer soldiers and air strikes and that a troop reductionhad already begun this month.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, speaking in Cairo, also stressedthe need for "less intensive" combat and greater aid flows, while reiteratingBerlin's solid support for Israel.
Her Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry voiced fears about the displacementof Palestinians and said "two million citizens cannot remain trapped in onespot in the south in this way".
Baerbock stressed that "we will not accept displacement. We will not acceptit in the West Bank, we will not accept it in Gaza."
Violence has also surged in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli policeconfirmed three people were killed Monday during a raid on Tulkarem to arrest a"wanted terrorist".
Israeli army raids and settler attacks in the West Bank have killed atleast 333 people since October 7, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinianhealth ministry.
Palestinian officials accused Israel of a "brutal crime" after footageshared on social media appeared to show a military vehicle running over a deadmilitant in Tulkarem, an incident the officials said summed up a "culture ofhatred" fostered by Israeli forces, reports BSS.