Foreign Secretary Antony Blinken emerged from a series of high-level meetings IsraelOfficials on Tuesday agreed to launch a United Nations-led assessment mission that would pave the way for civilians displaced by war in northern Gaza to eventually return home — a major step toward restoring a sense of normalcy to the besieged enclave.
“As Israel's campaign moves into a lower-intensity phase in northern Gaza, and as the IDF reduces its forces there, we agreed today on a plan for the UN to conduct an assessment mission,” Blinken said during a news conference in Tel Aviv. , referring to the Israel Defense Forces. “It will determine what needs to be done to allow displaced Palestinians to return safely to their homes in the north.”
“Now, this is not going to happen overnight. There are serious security, infrastructure and humanitarian challenges,” Blinken warned. “But the mission will begin a process that will assess these obstacles and how they can be overcome.”
Blinken also strongly defended Israel against genocide allegations brought by South Africa before the UN's highest legal body, the International Court of Justice, arguing that the case was “distracting the world's attention” from vital efforts related to the conflict .
“Furthermore, the charge of genocide is baseless,” Blinken argued. “It is particularly frightening given that those attacking Israel — Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, as well as their backer, Iran — continue to openly call for the annihilation of Israel and the mass murder of Jews.”
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But while in Israel during one of several visits to the country since Hamas's surprise terror attacks on October 7, Blinken publicly voiced some criticism of his government, particularly right-wing officials' opposition to the creation of an independent Palestinian state. — urging them from the podium to “stop taking steps that undermine the ability of the Palestinians to govern themselves effectively.”
The secretary was also asked about calls by two Israeli ministers to transfer Palestinians from Gaza, a State Department stance knocked as “inflammatory and irresponsible” last week.
Blinken said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had assured him that forcibly resettling Palestinians outside the enclave's borders was not his government's position.
But even persuading the Israeli government to allow the UN to explore pathways for displaced people in the Gaza perimeter was far from guaranteed.
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Since the outbreak of the war, US officials say the Israeli government has been reluctant to allow various types of foreign aid into Gaza, worried it would inadvertently benefit Hamas militants, and that changing the country's attitude often requires face-to-face diplomacy with high level cabinet members.
Nearly two million people across the Gaza Strip — the vast majority of its population — have been displaced at some point during the conflict, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
The agency also says it had extremely limited ability to deliver humanitarian aid to northern Gaza and share information about conditions in the area shortly after the fighting began.
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Blinken said he also discussed Israel's plans to scale back its campaign during closed-door meetings and reaffirmed the Biden administration's continued commitment to support its fight against Hamas until the threat posed by the designated terrorist group is eliminated.
“We believe that Israel has made significant progress toward this fundamental goal,” he said.
About 1,200 people were killed in Israel in the October 7 terror attack, according to the Israeli prime minister's office. More than 23,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Blinken announces agreement to launch UN assessment mission in northern Gaza originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
