Hamas chief Haniyeh tells Blinken to focus on ending Israeli ‘aggression’

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has called on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to use his current Middle East tour to end Israel’s “aggression” as war rages in Gaza.

The top US diplomat arrived in Turkey on Friday at the start of a trip that includes planned visits to Israel and the West Bank as well as several Arab and Gulf states.

US officials have said that Blinken, in his fourth regional tour since fighting erupted with Hamas’s October 7 assault on Israel, would focus on getting more aid into the Strip.

In a video message posted late Friday on Hamas’s social media channels, Haniyeh, who lives in exile, said he hoped Blinken had “learned the lessons of the last three months.”

The war was sparked by the October 7 onslaught, when some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists burst into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians slaughtered in their home communities and at a music festival amid brutal atrocities, and seizing an estimated 240 hostages.

In response, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and launched a wide-scale military campaign in Gaza aimed at destroying the group’s military and governance capabilities and returning the hostages.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says at least 22,700 people have been killed in the Strip since the war erupted on October 7. The Hamas figure does not differentiate between civilians and combatants and includes Palestinians killed by errant rocket fire from Gaza. Israel says it has killed 8,500 terrorists since launching the war.

US support for Israel’s military campaign “has caused unprecedented massacres and war crimes against our people in Gaza,” Haniyeh said.

“We… hope that he will be more focused this time on ending the aggression” as well as “the occupation of all Palestinian lands,” the Qatar-based Hamas chief added.

Haniyeh also urged regional leaders due to meet Blinken to tell him that stability in the Middle East was “closely linked to our Palestinian cause.”

The United States is Israel’s chief military and political backer and has repeatedly refused to support calls for a ceasefire.

However, Washington has lent its support to humanitarian pauses and backed a UN Security Council resolution demanding more aid be let into Gaza.