Blinken laments Gaza civilian toll, discusses hostage deal with Israeli officials
Secretary meets with Strategic Affairs Minister Dermer and National Security Adviser Hanegbi, who are also in DC for dialogue postponed after PM accused US of withholding weapons
WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his concern over the civilian death toll in Gaza during a meeting with a pair of visiting senior Israeli officials on Monday.
The Israeli military has launched several deadly attacks in recent days including close to a refugee camp and multiple UN-run schools where Hamas claimed civilians were sheltering. Israel, which targeted two senior Hamas terror chiefs in one of the attacks, says Hamas embeds its fighters among the civilian population and uses residential areas as well as UN facilities as bases to launch attacks or store weapons and military equipment.
Blinken told two influential Israeli officials — Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi — that the US had “serious concern about the recent civilian casualties in Gaza,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
Miller added, “We have seen civilian casualties come down from the high points of the conflict and even from where they were say six weeks, two months ago; but they still remain unacceptably high. We continue to see far too many civilians killed in this conflict.”
The trio also discussed the ongoing negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage agreement between Israel and Hamas, focusing on practical steps for closing the gaps between the sides, Miller said.
They also discussed planning for the post-war management of Gaza, improving the distribution of humanitarian aid in the Strip, and the ongoing tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
Later Monday, Dermer and Hanegbi were to participate in the US-Israel Strategic Consultative Group at the White House, covering cooperation on a range of bilateral issues including the Iran nuclear threat.
The SCG was tentatively planned to take place last month, but was postponed after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly accused the US of withholding weapons from Israel.
On Saturday, Israel struck in the area of the Al-Mawasi camp near Khan Younis, saying it targeted two senior people — the head of Hamas’s military wing, Muhammad Deif, and his close associate Rafa’a Salameh, commander of the Khan Younis Brigade. Salameh has been confirmed killed while Deif’s fate remains unknown. The two senior Hamas members were targeted while in a low building in a fenced-off Hamas compound, according to the IDF.
Hamas, without differentiating between civilians and fighters, said the strikes killed more than 90 people. Military sources have said dozens of Hamas gunmen were in the targeted area. Photos have shown victims included children.
The two Israeli officials told Blinken that “they do not have certainty yet” about Deif’s fate, according to Miller.
A Hamas official said Sunday that Deif was “well and directly overseeing” operations. Israeli defense officials have said they increasingly believe Deif did not survive.
Meanwhile on Monday, the IDF said it struck a number of Hamas operatives gathered on the grounds of an UNRWA-affiliated school in Nuseirat in central Gaza. Hamas was using the building as a hiding place and a location from which to plan attacks against Israeli troops operating in Gaza, the military said. The IDF said that prior to the strike it took steps to limit harm to civilians, including using precision weapons and intelligence.
The Hamas-run media office in the Strip said 12 people were killed in the strike on the school grounds, which it claimed was housing displaced people. Health officials in Gaza said only that several people were killed and wounded in the strike.
A New York Times in-depth analysis published Saturday found that Hamas has heavily relied on embedding itself in the enclave’s civilian population as both a method of survival and a way to ambush Israeli troops.
Dermer and Hanegbi’s visit to Washington comes several days before Netanyahu is due to travel to the US to address Congress on July 24. President Joe Biden is set to host him at the White House earlier in the visit.
“We continue to hear from Israel directly that they want to reach a ceasefire and that they’re committed to the proposal that they put forward,” Miller said.
The war began with the massive October 7 cross-border attack led by Hamas in which terrorists killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducted 251 to Gaza.
Israel responded with a military offensive to destroy Hamas, topple its Gaza regime, and free the hostages, of whom 116 remain in captivity, many of them believed dead.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 38,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 15,000 combatants in battle and some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 attack.
Biden has been under mounting political pressure over the plight of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“We are incredibly troubled by the ongoing deaths of Palestinians in Gaza,” Miller said Monday.
