Jerusalem, Undefined – AFP A US envoy held talks with top Israeli leaders to press for de-escalation on the Lebanese border, as an Israeli official said Hezbollah had fired thousands of projectiles towards Israel in the last eight months. Israel and Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, have traded near-daily cross-border fire since October last year...
Palestinian Territories – AFP Israeli forces struck Gaza on Friday as truce efforts failed to make progress and tensions surged on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. Witnesses reported strikes on the southern city of Rafah and central areas of the Gaza Strip. At Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah, men...
Doha, Qatar – AFP Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed Wednesday to keep pressing to seal a Gaza cease-fire deal, saying that not all Hamas demands were acceptable but voicing hope that gaps could be closed. Consulting with key mediator Qatar on the Hamas response to President Joe Biden’s plan, Blinken said Hamas could have [&h...
Sweimeh, Jordan – AFP Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday announced $404 million in new US assistance for the Palestinians, as he urged other countries including US critics also to give money to address Gaza’s humanitarian crisis. The aid, announced at an emergency aid conference in Jordan, brings the total US contribution...
Tel Aviv, Israel – AFP US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “reaffirmed his commitment” to a Gaza cease-fire proposal during their meeting in Jerusalem. “I met with Prime Minister Netanyahu last night and he reaffirmed his commitment to the proposal,”...
A San Francisco court has initiated an expedited hearing for a case accusing the Biden administration of complicity in genocide in Gaza. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals began the hearing on Monday. Palestinian plaintiffs, represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), argue that US officials have a legal obligation to prevent ge...
WASHINGTON (AA) – Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during closed-door talks Monday that the Biden administration and other unspecified world leaders “will stand behind” a cease-fire agreement outlined by President Joe Biden. During his meetings with Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Blink...
Cairo, Egypt – AFP US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was heading back to the Middle East on Monday to push a cease-fire plan, but Israeli politics and silence from Hamas raised further questions on whether he can succeed. The top US diplomat, paying his eighth visit to the region since October last year, was […]
ATHENS (AA) – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday admitted that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is dire, saying Washington is working to allow more aid into the Palestinian enclave. Speaking at a press conference in Prague following an informal meeting of the NATO foreign ministers, Blinken said, “We’ve seen changes, some p...
Human rights advocates globally slammed President Joe Biden for his condemnation of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor’s move to seek arrest warrants for Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Biden’s denunciation drew ire for its perceived double standards, with critics accusing him of defending atrocities. The pr...