Antony Blinken in Turkey on ‘concrete’ Gaza aid: ‘US telling Israel to…’
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said that Washington was working “very aggressively” to expand the amount of aid reaching civilians in Gaza after holding 2.5 hours of one-on-one talks in Ankara with Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan which focused on ways to relieve the humanitarian toll of the Israel-Hamas war.
“We are working, as I said, very aggressively on getting more humanitarian assistance into Gaza and we have very concrete ways of doing that,” Antony Blinken said, adding, “I think we will see in the days ahead that the assistance can expand in significant ways.”
The top US diplomat said a “pause could help” ensure more aid reaches civilians, asserting, “We know the deep concern here (in Turkey) for the terrible toll… in Gaza and its civilians, a concern that we share, that we are working on every single day. We engage the Israelis on the steps that they can take to minimise civilian casualties.”
On humanitarian aid in Gaza, Antony Blinken said, “We have made good progress in recent days on expanding” the aid getting into Gaza as he wrapped up a grueling Middle East diplomatic tour after only limited success in efforts to create a regional consensus. Before leaving Turkey, he said, “All of this is a work in progress. We don’t obviously agree on everything, but there are common views on some of the imperatives of the moment that we’re working on together.”
“We’ve engaged the Israelis on steps that they can take to minimize civilian casualties. We’re working, as I said, very aggressively on getting more humanitarian assistance into Gaza. We are very focused on the hostages held by Hamas, including the Americans, and we are doing everything possible to bring them home,” he said.
This comes as Israeli troops are expected to enter the Gaza city and are likely to face militants fighting street by street using a vast network of tunnels as casualties rose in the month-old war, which has already killed more than 9,700 Palestinians and more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in Israel.
However, Antony Blinken did not meet with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has been highly critical of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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