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Blinken Heads to Middle East, Pushes for Gaza Truce

Published

Monday, October 21, 2024 at 03:25 PM

Written by Daukoru Grey

Blinken Heads to Middle East, Pushes for Gaza Truce

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading back to the Middle East today on a new push for an elusive Gaza ceasefire two weeks before US elections.

It will be the 11th trip to the Middle East by the top US diplomat since the war broke out a year ago, with Blinken on his last visit to Israel in August warning it may have been the “last chance” for a US-led ceasefire plan.

Although that push did not succeed, and the conflict has escalated and expanded since then, with Israel pounding Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and warning of a new strike directly on Iran, whose clerical leaders back both Hamas and Hezbollah.

Blinken’s trip comes days after he and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned Israel that the United States could withhold some of its billions of dollars in military aid unless more humanitarian assistance is allowed into Gaza, where the UN warns more than 1.8 million people are facing extreme hunger.

ND Connect had reported that the WHO has said that about 1,000 women and children needing medical care will shortly be evacuated from Gaza to Europe.

The Head, World Health Organization in Europe Hans Kluge, made this known in a statement on Monday.

Israel, which is besieging the war-devastated Palestinian territory, “is committed to 1,000 more medical evacuations within the next months to the European Union,” Hans Kluge said.

He said the evacuations would be facilitated by the WHO, the United Nations’ health agency, and the European countries involved.

On Thursday, UN investigators said Israel was deliberately targeting health facilities in Gaza, killing and torturing medical personnel there, accusing the country of “crimes against humanity”.

“This would never have happened if we did not keep the dialogue (open),” Kluge said.

“The same (is true) for Ukraine,” he added. “I keep the dialogue (open) with all partners.

“Now, 15,000 HIV-AIDS patients in Donbas, the occupied territories (of Ukraine), are getting HIV-AIDS medications,” the 55-year-old Belgian said in English, stressing the importance of “not politicizing health”.

“The most important medicine is peace,” he said, noting that healthcare workers had to be allowed to do their jobs in conflict zones.

Around 2,000 attacks have been registered on health centers in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, according to the WHO.

Edited By: Manasseh Paul-Worika

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Blinken Heads to Middle East, Pushes for Gaza Truce

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading back to the Middle East today on a new push for an elusive Gaza ceasefire two weeks before US elections.

It will be the 11th trip to the Middle East by the top US diplomat since the war broke out a year ago, with Blinken on his last visit to Israel in August warning it may have been the “last chance” for a US-led ceasefire plan.

Although that push did not succeed, and the conflict has escalated and expanded since then, with Israel pounding Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and warning of a new strike directly on Iran, whose clerical leaders back both Hamas and Hezbollah.

ND Connect had reported that the WHO has said that about 1,000 women and children needing medical care will shortly be evacuated from Gaza to Europe.

The Head, World Health Organization in Europe Hans Kluge, made this known in a statement on Monday.

Israel, which is besieging the war-devastated Palestinian territory, “is committed to 1,000 more medical evacuations within the next months to the European Union,” Hans Kluge said.

He said the evacuations would be facilitated by the WHO, the United Nations’ health agency, and the European countries involved.

On Thursday, UN investigators said Israel was deliberately targeting health facilities in Gaza, killing and torturing medical personnel there, accusing the country of “crimes against humanity”.

“This would never have happened if we did not keep the dialogue (open),” Kluge said.

“The same (is true) for Ukraine,” he added. “I keep the dialogue (open) with all partners.

“Now, 15,000 HIV-AIDS patients in Donbas, the occupied territories (of Ukraine), are getting HIV-AIDS medications,” the 55-year-old Belgian said in English, stressing the importance of “not politicizing health”.

“The most important medicine is peace,” he said, noting that healthcare workers had to be allowed to do their jobs in conflict zones.

Around 2,000 attacks have been registered on health centers in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, according to the WHO.

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