Live: Blinken heads to Middle East for Gaza ceasefire push as Israel strikes Beirut

Live

Middle East

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. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates on the Middle East crisis.

Issued on: 22/10/2024 – 01:56

1 min

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken boards a plane as he departs Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on October 21, 2024. © AFP

22/10/2024 – 01:53

Blinken back to Middle East to push for Gaza truce

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.

22/10/2024 – 00:24

Summary

Lebanon‘s health ministry said four people including a child had been killed on Monday evening in Israeli strikes near the country’s biggest public hospital close to the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Israeli media said last week that two men killed alongside Hamas head Yahya Sinwar were his bodyguards, and that one of them worked for UNRWA.
Two Hamas sources said the Palestinian militant group was moving towards appointing a Doha-based ruling committee rather than a single successor to its chief Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli troops last week.
Visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein said Monday the basis of a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was a 2006 United Nations resolution but that it would require more than just commitments from the warring parties.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Saturday that at least 42,519 people have been killed in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants, although the toll did not incorporate a strike that killed 33 people overnight.