US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken left yesterday Sunday for the Middle East, with the aim of contributing to the progress of negotiations to declare a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages.

His fifth trip to the region since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7 comes against a backdrop of escalating tensions following US bombing of Iran-aligned factions in Iraq and Syria, as well as the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Mr. Blinken will tour Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Israel and the occupied West Bank, according to his agency.

Although it says it continues to support “Israel’s right to defend itself”, the US does not hide its growing dissatisfaction with the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, some members of which are harsh critics of US President Joe Biden, such as in particular the far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir.

Washington has imposed, in a rather rare move, sanctions against settlers it describes as extremists, blaming them for a series of deadly attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, where US President Joe Biden considers the situation “intolerable”.

Negotiations are continuing to declare a second truce, longer than the one in late November that allowed the release of more than a hundred hostages held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners by Israel.

More humanitarian aid (?)

Representatives of Qatar, Egypt, Israel and the US met on the last weekend of January in Paris to discuss a proposal to declare a second “pause”.

It calls for a six-week truce, the release of 200 to 300 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel in exchange for the release of 35 to 40 hostages, according to an AFP source in Hamas, which Israel, the US and the EU label a “terrorist” organization.

Last Monday, following a meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani, Mr Blinken spoke of “real hope” on the issue.

But “the ball is in Hamas’s court”, commented Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser of the US presidency, yesterday Sunday.

According to the Israeli authorities, there are still 132 hostages in the enclave, but 28 of them are believed to be dead.

In Israel, the US top diplomat is also expected to press for increased deliveries of food, water and medicine to the Gaza Strip, which has suffered massive damage after nearly four months of intense Israeli bombardment.

“He will be among the top priorities when he talks with the Israeli government,” Mr. Sullivan said, adding that “the needs of the Palestinian people are at the heart” of American mediation efforts.

Mr Blinken is expected to begin his new tour by visiting Saudi Arabia today.

He is expected to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto leader, as Washington pushes to restart talks on a possible normalization of relations between Riyadh and Israel, which were suspended after the outbreak of war.

At the beginning of January, in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Blinken had spoken of a “clear interest” in pursuing this goal, which, however, Riyadh associates with the end of the war in the Gaza Strip and the creation of a Palestinian state.

The war broke out on October 7, triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas’ military arm on southern sectors of Israeli territory that killed at least 1,160 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.

In retaliation, Israel’s civil-military leadership vowed to “wipe out” Hamas and launched military operations that have killed at least 27,238 people, the vast majority of them women and children, according to the latest death toll released by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Sunday. .

More than 1.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip — or, in other words, more than half of its population — have taken refuge in Rafah, in the southern part of the Palestinian enclave, according to the UN, huddled in the border area with Egypt, threatened by Israeli military operations, famine and epidemics in the middle of winter.