US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Israel for meetings with Israeli leaders, the first stop on a wider tour of the Middle East aimed at reviving talks on a ceasefire deal.
The US top diplomat’s 11th trip to the region since the October 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas in southern Israel that sparked the Gaza war comes as the Israeli military steps up its campaign in the Palestinian enclave as well as in Lebanon against it. Iranian-backed organization Hezbollah.
Blinken will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Galland and other officials later in the day as part of a week-long Middle East visit that also includes Jordan and Qatar.
Diplomatic efforts have so far failed to bring an end to the year-long war in Gaza and prevent it from spilling over into the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. which has intensified dramatically in recent weeks after a year of exchanges of fire mainly on Lebanon’s southern border.
Hezbollah said early this morning that it fired a barrage of rockets at two Israeli military bases near Tel Aviv and a naval base west of Haifa.
For their part, the Israeli forces tried to entertain the impression of the carnage they are also committing in Lebanon, claiming with their statement that the Israeli warplanes in the evening hit a Hezbollah target near the Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut, but did not target the hospital, which was not affected by the hit.
Of course, they did not comment on the fact that thirteen people died from the blow, including a child and 57 others were injured, according to a new report published today by the Ministry of Health. The Rafik Hariri hospital suffered limited damage, according to an AFP photographer at the scene.
At the site of the impact, searches are continuing in the rubble to identify victims, according to an AFP photographer who is there.
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