U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Cairo on Tuesday for a meeting with Egyptian leaders that U.S. officials say will focus primarily on negotiating a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas in exchange for release. of the hostages held by the militants.
Blinken's visit also comes amid growing concerns in Egypt about Israel's stated intentions to expand the fighting in Gaza to areas on the Egyptian border that are teeming with displaced Palestinians.
Israel's Defense Minister has said the Israeli offensive will eventually reach the city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, where more than half of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have sought refuge and live in increasingly poor conditions. more miserable.
U.N. humanitarian observers said Tuesday that Israeli evacuation orders now affect two-thirds of Gaza territory, pushing thousands of people further into border areas each day.
Egypt has warned that an Israeli deployment along the border would threaten the peace treaty the two countries signed more than four decades ago. Cairo fears that an expansion of fighting into the Rafah area could push terrified Palestinian civilians across the border, a scenario Egypt has said it is determined to avoid.
Blinken, who met with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Tuesday, has repeatedly said that Palestinians should not be forced to leave Gaza.
During this tour, Blinken seeks progress on a ceasefire agreement, a possible normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and the prevention of an escalation of regional fighting. On all three fronts, Blinken faces major challenges.
Hamas and Israel are publicly at odds over key elements of a possible truce. Israel has dismissed US calls for a path to a Palestinian state, and Iran-allied militants in the region have shown few signs of being deterred by US strikes.
Egypt, along with Qatar, where Blinken will also travel this Tuesday, has been trying to mediate a deal between Israel and Hamas that would lead to the release of more hostages in exchange for a several-week pause in Israeli military operations. The bases of that agreement were drawn up by the intelligence chiefs of the United States, Egypt, Qatar and Israel at the end of last month and were presented to Hamas, which has not yet formally responded.
U.S. officials said Blinken hopes to get news about Hamas's response to the proposal in both Cairo and Doha. Blinken will then travel to Israel to brief Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet on Wednesday about what he heard from Arab leaders.
As with his four previous trips to the Middle East since the Gaza war began, Blinken's other main goal is to prevent the conflict from spreading, a task made exponentially more difficult by increased attacks by the increasingly harsh Iranian-backed militias in the region and the US military in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and the Red Sea, which have intensified since last week.
Blinken met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday evening, shortly after arriving in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Saudi officials have said the kingdom is still interested in normalizing relations with Israel in a potentially historic deal, but only if there is a credible plan to create a Palestinian state.
Blinken “underscored the importance of addressing humanitarian needs in Gaza and preventing the further spread of the conflict,” and he and the crown prince discussed “the importance of building a more integrated and prosperous region,” the State Department said in a statement.
But any such agreement appears to be a long way off, as war still rages in Gaza. The Palestinian death toll after nearly four months of war has reached 27,478, according to the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-ruled territory. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but says the majority of the dead have been women and children.
The war has devastated vast areas of the small enclave and pushed a quarter of its 2.3 million residents into famine.
U.N. humanitarian observers said Tuesday that Israel's evacuation orders in the Gaza Strip now cover two-thirds of the territory, or 246 square kilometers. The affected area was home to 1.78 million Palestinians, or 77% of Gaza's population, before the war.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its daily report that the newly displaced only have between 1.5 and 2 liters of water a day for drinking, cooking and washing. It also reported a significant increase in chronic diarrhea among children.
Families with babies face a particularly difficult challenge due to the high cost or lack of diapers, baby formula, and milk.
Zainab Al-Zein, a refugee in the central city of Deir al-Balah, explains that she has to feed her two-and-a-half-month-old daughter solid foods, such as crackers and ground rice, long before she reaches the usual six months, because milk and formula were not available.
“We know it's an unhealthy diet, and we know it causes intestinal discomfort, bloating and cramps," says al-Zein. "As you can see, he spends 24 hours like this, crying and crying continuously."
Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Israel crushes Hamas's military and governance capabilities and secures the return of the more than 100 hostages still being held by the militant group.
