Blinken ends latest Mideast mission

TEL AVIV, Israel — Secretary of State Antony Blinken left the Middle East on Thursday, ending his fifth trip to the region since the Israel-Hamas war began in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 were killed and another 250 were taken hostage.

Wrapping up a four-nation Mideast tour, Blinken was returning to Washington after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war against Hamas terrorists would continue until Israel is completely victorious and rejected outright a response from Hamas to a proposed cease-fire plan.

Blinken and other U.S. officials said they remained optimistic that progress could be made on their main goals of improving humanitarian conditions for Palestinians civilians, securing the release of hostages held by Hamas terrorists, preparing for a post-conflict Gaza and preventing the war from spreading.

Officials said Blinken’s optimism was based on his first four post-Oct. 7 trips to the Middle East. None of those visits resulted in immediate visible successes, but they brought limited but significant improvements in the delivery of humanitarian aid and a weeklong cease-fire in November in which scores of hostages were released.

“Clearly there are things that Hamas sent back that are absolute non-starters,” Blinken said of the response the terrorist group delivered Tuesday to a cease-fire and hostage release proposal that was endorsed last month by Egypt, Qatar, the U.S. and Israel itself.

“But, at the same time, we see space to continue to pursue an agreement,” Blinken said late Wednesday.

Shortly before Blinken spoke, Netanyahu took direct aim at the Hamas response, calling it “delusional” and vowing that Israel would fight on. Netanyahu also appeared to dismiss concerns about expanding Israel’s military operations in southern Gaza.

“On all of my previous visits here and pretty much every day in between, we have pressed Israel in concrete ways to strengthen civilian protection, to get more assistance to those who need it. And over the past four months, Israel has taken important steps to do just that,” Blinken said. “And yet … the daily toll that its military operations continue to take on innocent civilians remains too high.”

Additionally, Netanyahu called for the dismantlement of UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, amid allegations that a dozen of its employees took part in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

The U.S. and other donor nations have suspended new assistance to UNRWA pending completion of a U.N. investigation, but Blinken has nonetheless said the agency’s role is critical to getting humanitarian supplies into Gaza.

The Palestinian death toll from four months of war has reached 27,840, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Hamas is still holding over 130 hostages, but around 30 of them are believed to be dead, with the vast majority killed on Oct. 7. The group is widely believed to be holding the captives in tunnels deep underground and using them as human shields for its top leaders.

An Israeli man who was believed to have been kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 has been confirmed as being dead.

Kibbutz Be’eri, the community from which Manny Goddard was abducted, said Thursday that he was likely killed during the attack and his body is being held in Gaza.

Goddard’s wife, Ayelet, was also killed on Oct. 7. The couple are survived by four children.