Blinken meets with Netanyahu as diplomatic efforts ramp up

TEL AVIV, Mar 22 (Agencies): US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on Friday morning as part of an intensive diplomatic push to reach a “sustained and immediate ceasefire” in Gaza and deter an Israeli offensive into Rafah.

Those efforts faced a blow on Friday with the failure of a US-drafted UN Security Council resolution calling for such a ceasefire tied to the release of the hostages held by Hamas.

The stop in Tel Aviv caps Blinken’s sixth round of shuttle diplomacy in the region since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. He arrived in the country just before 10 a.m. local time. Following his meeting with Netanyahu, Blinken met with the Israeli war cabinet for approximately two and a half hours.

Blinken’s visit coincided with the resumption of talks in Doha aimed at securing a deal for a ceasefire tied to the release of the hostages held by Hamas as well as a vote at the UN on a US-sponsored Security Council resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in the Gaza conflict.

The resolution was the first time the US had taken to the UN body to call for a ceasefire in the conflict, but they specifically tied the ceasefire to the release of the hostages held by Hamas.

Israel announces large

West Bank land seizure

Israel reported Friday the seizure of 800 hectares (1,977 acres) of land in the occupied West Bank, which activists called the largest action of its kind in decades.

Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared as "state lands" the area in the northern Jordan Valley, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel for Gaza war talks.

Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said the size of the seized area is the largest since 1993's Oslo Accords, and that "2024 marks a peak in the extent of declarations of state land."

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

At least 37 mothers killed

daily in Gaza

An average of at least 37 mothers are killed per day due to the ongoing Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Thursday, when the Arab world celebrates its Mother's Day that falls on March 21 annually.

The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs in Palestine Liberation Organization, along with the Palestinian Prisoners Club Association, said in a joint statement on the occasion of Mother's Day that the ongoing Israeli offensive in Gaza has resulted in massive deaths of Palestinian mothers and children.

The statement added the Israeli army has carried out mass arrests of women in the enclave since the onset of its all-out conflict against Hamas last October.

UK, Australia call for 'immediate cessation of fighting' in Gaza

Britain and Australia on Friday declared the need for an "immediate cessation of fighting" in Gaza, as diplomatic pressure built on Israel to rethink a planned ground assault on the southern city of Rafah.

Australian and UK foreign and defence ministers stressed the "urgency of an immediate cessation of fighting in Gaza to allow aid to flow and hostages to be released", in a statement after talks in Adelaide.

The call came just hours before the United States was expected to put a resolution to the UN Security Council that would stress the need for "an immediate ceasefire".

Washington has for months vetoed calls for resolutions including that language, shielding its closest Middle Eastern ally Israel from UN criticism as it avenges the attacks of October 7.

But there is concern in Washington about the human toll of Israel's five-month-old Gaza offensive and the political fallout across the Middle East.

The operation has enraged the Arab world and claimed almost 32,000 lives, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

There are also suspicions in Washington that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu-the country's longest-serving leader-may be dragging out the war for political reasons.

A UN resolution would heap pressure on him, and Israel, to temper the operations. But it is far from clear that any resolution would halt the war altogether.

Brushing aside critics, Netanyahu has vowed to intensify operations by moving into Rafah-hoping to rout the remnants of Hamas forces responsible for bloody October 7 raids into Israel that killed about 1,160 people, mostly civilians.

London's call for an "immediate cessation of fighting" is a sign that Britain is also growing more anxious about the toll and impact of what Israel calls Operation Swords of Iron. Britain and Australia said a cessation was now urgently needed to "allow aid to flow and hostages to be released as a crucial step toward a permanent, sustainable ceasefire."