Blinken back to Middle East to push for Gaza truce

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken left for the Middle East Monday on a new push for an elusive Gaza ceasefire two weeks before US elections, seeing a new opportunity from Israel's killing of Hamas's leader.

It will be the 11th trip to the Middle East by the top US diplomat since 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.

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.

US President Joe Biden, who personally laid out the ceasefire plan on May 31 that would also free hostages from Gaza, has seen new hope since Israel last week killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar.

Biden, speaking to reporters on a visit to Germany, said he called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to congratulate him and tell him that Blinken would head to the region.

"I told him that we were really pleased with his actions and, further, that now is the time to move on -- move on, move towards a ceasefire," Biden said Thursday.

The Gaza war was sparked by the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel last year that resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 42,603 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the UN considers reliable.

Last month, Israel expanded its military operations to Lebanon, where at least 1,470 people have been killed since then, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.

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.

- US election implications -

A breakthrough could be a major boost for US Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running in a razor-tight November 5 race for the White House against Donald Trump.

The war has been a political albatross for Biden and to an extent Harris, his political heir, with Netanyahu repeatedly brushing aside US entreaties to do more to spare civilians.

Trump also spoke to Netanyahu about Sinwar's killing, with the Republican saying that the Israeli leader was proven right in ignoring Biden's pressure to dial back military operations.

Trump suggested he would give freer rein to Netanyahu, telling reporters that Biden was "trying to hold him back and he probably should be doing the opposite."

Trump staunchly backed Israel in his first term. He has a complicated relationship with Netanyahu but Republican voters, unlike Democrats, are overwhelmingly supportive of Israel and Netanyahu.

- Seeing ways forward -

Blinken flies first to Israel and then will tour other countries in the Middle East through Friday.

An official on the plane with him said Blinken will visit Jordan on Wednesday and discuss humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip.

The State Department did not list his other stops but on previous trips Blinken has visited a number of Arab countries, especially Qatar and Egypt, the key intermediaries in ceasefire negotiations.

Blinken "will discuss the importance of bringing the war in Gaza to an end, securing the release of all hostages and alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people," a State Department statement said.

It said Blinken would also discuss post-war arrangements critical for a peace deal and seek a "diplomatic resolution" in Lebanon, where the United States has stopped short of urging an immediate ceasefire.

Blinken has also sought to coax Netanyahu into compromise by dangling the prospect of normalization with Saudi Arabia -- which would be a historic game-changer in Israel's quest for acceptance, as the kingdom is the guardian of Islam's two holiest sites.

Netanyahu, leading the most right-wing coalition in Israeli history, has called Sinwar's death "the beginning of the end" of the Gaza war but faces calls from his base to keep up military operations in Gaza, which has already largely been reduced to rubble.

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