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Blinken in Israel in Last Big Ceasefire Push Before US Election
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is welcomed by US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew and Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Deputy Director General for North America Lior Hayat, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 22, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Nathan Howard/Pool
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday in the first big US push for a Middle East ceasefire since Israel killed the leader of Hamas last week — and the last attempt before a presidential election that could upend US policy.
Blinken began his meetings in Israel as Hezbollah launched rockets into Tel Aviv and Haifa and Israeli air strikes pummeled parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Repeated diplomatic efforts have failed to bring an end to both the year-long war in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian enclave of Gaza and to its spillover conflict between Israel and the Lebanese Iran-backed armed terrorist group Hezbollah.
Blinken, on his 11th trip to the region since the Gaza war erupted, faces a daunting mission.
Hezbollah said on Tuesday there would be no negotiations while fighting continues and it claimed responsibility for a drone attack on Netanyahu’s holiday home on Saturday.
Washington hopes the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar — Israel‘s most wanted man, blamed for triggering the year of warfare by planning the deadly attack on Oct. 7 last year on Israeli territory — will provide a new opportunity for peace.
But Israel has so far shown no sign of relenting in its military campaigns even after assassinating several leaders of Iran’s allies Hamas and Hezbollah, which lost its powerful leader Hassan Nasrallah in a Sept. 27 airstrike.
In Gaza on Tuesday, the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA called for a temporary truce to allow civilians to leave areas in the north of the enclave where Israeli forces were hunting down Hamas terrorists.
SIRENS IN TEL AVIV
Blinken was meeting Netanyahu and other officials at the start of a week-long trip that will also take him to Jordan and Qatar. US officials say he is exploring plans for rebuilding and governing Gaza after the war, key to reaching a ceasefire.
Iran and its terrorist allies — Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis, armed groups in Iraq, and Hamas in Gaza — have said that their “Axis of Resistance” against Israeli and US interests will emerge victorious.
The Houthis said on Tuesday they had targeted an Israeli military base in Tel Aviv using ballistic missiles in solidarity with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
Hours before Blinken landed, air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and other areas of central Israel after Hezbollah fired missiles at what it said were Israeli military targets near Haifa and Tel Aviv. The missiles were an apparent demonstration that Hezbollah’s capabilities have survived Israel‘s biggest operation in decades of hostilities.
The conflict has spread to Lebanon over the past month, with Israel launching a ground campaign and intensified air assaults against Hezbollah, which had been firing across the frontier for a year in solidarity with the Palestinians.
During a night of heavy strikes on south Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut, Israel struck the area near Beirut’s Rafik Hariri hospital, Lebanon’s main state medical facility. Lebanese authorities said 13 people were killed.
The Israeli military said the hospital itself had not been targeted and was not affected. Director Jihad Saadeh said the hospital was damaged because of an Israeli attack near it.
Hamas, which is still holding scores of hostages in Gaza seized in its Oct. 7, 2023 raid on Israel, refuses to release them without an Israeli pledge to end the war.
Israel says it will not halt fighting until the Islamist terrorist group is completely destroyed in the enclave, which has been largely reduced to ruins during Israel’s military campaign.
Washington and other allies hope Israel‘s killing of Sinwar in a firefight last week could provide a breakthrough by making it easier for Netanyahu’s government to assert that its objectives have been achieved in Gaza.
But diplomats and other sources say Israel is pressing to lock in a strong position before a new US administration takes over following the Nov. 5 election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump.
ISRAELI RETALIATION AGAINST IRAN
State Department officials said Blinken intended to raise the issue of what happens in Gaza when the war ends, focusing on security, governance, and reconstruction. Washington has long said it ideally wants Gaza reunited with the West Bank under a government run by the Palestinian Authority, which now exercises limited self-rule.
Blinken will also discuss Israel‘s anticipated retaliation for a ballistic missile attack launched by Iran on Oct. 1, a senior State Department official said.
Allies are worried that Israel‘s response could disrupt oil markets and ignite a full-blown war between the arch-enemies.
The Gaza war began after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities on Oct. 7 last year, killing around 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages.
The post Blinken in Israel in Last Big Ceasefire Push Before US Election first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.