WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM (AP) – The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will travel to Israel, Bahrain and Qatar next week as the US continues to press allies to commit to an international maritime task force to protect commercial ships in the Red Sea as those ships have come under increased attacks.
Austin will also meet with his defense counterparts in Tel Aviv to show continued US support for Israel’s right to defend itself but also press the need for Israel to avoid more civilian casualties in Gaza.
Late Monday, a land-based cruise missile launched from Houthi-controlled Yemen hit the Motor Transport ship STRINDA, causing a fire. The USS Mason, a destroyer, responded to assist the ship.
BIDEN ADVISER TO ATTEMPT ON ENDING MAJOR COMBAT IN GAZA
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said he will speak with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about timetables for ending major combat in Gaza when he visits Israel later this week.
Sullivan said he would be carrying President Joe Biden’s thoughts on the matter and would also be looking to hear from Netanyahu and Israeli officials on the issue.
“The subject of how they are seeing the timetable of this war will certainly be on the agenda for my meetings,” Sullivan said Tuesday during an appearance at a forum hosted by the Wall Street Journal.
Sullivan suggested that at some point Israeli forces would shift toward more focused operations to achieve their objectives.
“It doesn’t have to be that you go from that to literally nothing in terms of putting pressure on going after Hamas targets, Hamas leadership, or continuing to have tools in your toolbox to try to secure the release of hostages,” he said. “It just means that you move to a different phase from the kind of high-intensity operations that we see today.”
Sullivan said he would also speak to Netanyahu about his recent comments that Israel Defense Forces would maintain open-ended security control of Gaza after the war ends.
Sullivan reiterated the Biden administration’s position that it does not want to see Israel reoccupy Gaza or further shrink its already small territory. The administration has repeatedly called for a return of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority and the resumption of peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
“I will have the opportunity to talk to Prime Minister Netanyahu about what exactly he has in mind with that comment, because that can be interpreted in a number of different ways,” Sullivan said. “But the U.S. position on this is clear.”
‘BODIES OF 2 HOSTAGES RECOVERED’
The Israeli army claimed on Tuesday that they had retrieved the bodies of two hostages from Gaza in an operation that killed two Israeli soldiers.
Soldiers retrieved the bodies of Eden Zakaria, 27, who was kidnapped from the music festival near Kibbutz Re’im, and Ziv Dado, 36, a soldier serving near the Gaza border. Dado was killed on October 7 and his body was taken to Gaza. Zakaria was wounded on October 7, and it was unclear if she was taken alive or dead to Gaza, according to reports on Israel’s Channel 12.
During the operation to rescue the bodies, two soldiers, Gal Meir Eizenkot and Eyal Meir Berkowitz, were killed. Gal Eisenkot is the son of Gadi Eizenkot, who served as military chief of staff from 2015 to 2019 and sits on the war cabinet.
WORLD BANK AID FOR GAZA
The World Bank on Tuesday announced that it would provide $20 million in new emergency relief for the people of Gaza as part of an overall $35 million package of support.
The bank says this includes $10 million in new financing for food vouchers and parcels, which is expected to reach an estimated 377,000 people. The assistance will be delivered through the World Food Program.
The World Bank also says its Health Emergency & Preparedness Trust Fund has allocated $10 million, provided by Japan and Germany, for medical care and supplies for humanitarian purposes, to be delivered through UNICEF and the World Health Organisation.
CYPRUS A LAUNCH POINT FOR GAZA AID
A spokesman for the government of Cyprus says a team of technical experts from Israel is visiting the island nation to inspect infrastructure and facilities that will be used to ship large quantities of humanitarian aid across the Mediterranean to Gaza, once conditions on the ground allow for it.
Spokesman Constantinos Letymbiotis said the Israeli team’s visit Tuesday follows two earlier trips that Cypriot technical experts made to Israel to brief authorities there about the Cypriot initiative.
Letymbiotis repeated that many countries have already expressed their willingness to contribute both in materiel or any other technical assistance required to deliver the aid, using shallow-draft vessels able to reach the shoreline.
An initial shipment is already in storage at Larnaca port, from where ships will set sail for Gaza some 242 miles (390 kilometers) away.
It’s understood that officials from Israel and elsewhere will be on hand to monitor as Cypriot customs agents inspect the aid to ensure that nothing is shipped to Gaza that could be weaponized by Hamas to use against Israel.