GAZA: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to visit to Egypt on Tuesday (today) as part of a Middle East crisis trip seeking a new ceasefire and “an enduring end” to Hamas-Israel war. Blinken is scheduled to hold meeting with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
The visit, Blinken’s fifth to the middle east in the nearly four-month-long conflict, will later include stops in Qatar and Israel.
“No place is secure and safe, no place at all, where shall we go?” Palestinian Mohamad Kozaat said following six members of his family, including his daughter, were wounded in an Israeli attack on the border town.
Israel’s brutal military campaign has killed more than 27,478 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, health ministry said.
US Top Diplomat Heads to Egypt to Seek ‘Enduring End’ to War in Gaza
As people in Gazan suffer dire humanitarian conditions, the UNRWA, is facing accusations that 12 staff members were involved in October 7 attack. Several countries, led by top donor the US, suspended their funding to the UN aid agency.
Spain, however said it would provide an additional 3.5 million euros “so that UNRWA can maintain its operations in the short term,” Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres also announced the formation of an independent panel to assess UNRWA.
Jordan urged donors to maintain support for the UN agency “to allow it to provide its key humanitarian services… especially in light of the tragic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.”
French Minister for Foreign Affairs Stephane Sejourne, on his first trip to the region since taking office, asked for the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace dialogue “without delay.”
