Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the Middle East for the next few days, where he will hold meetings with officials in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Israel and the West Bank. While this is his fifth trip to the region since October, Blinken’s latest visit couldn’t come at a more delicate time.
In Gaza, Israel’s military is wrapping up its operations in the city of Khan Younis and preparing to root out Hamas cells in Rafah near the Gaza-Egypt border, which is now jampacked with more than a million Palestinians who fled from their homes to escape the fighting. As the war continues, Israel and Hamas are actively engaged in negotiations to establish a multiweek truce, which would enable the release of the remaining hostages in Hamas’ custody and boost humanitarian aid into Gaza. All of this is coming as Israeli defense officials are warning Hezbollah in no uncertain terms that the Israeli military is prepared to do to Beirut what it did to Gaza City.
In Iraq and Syria, the United States conducted its largest airstrikes to date against Iran-backed militia groups that have attacked Americans in both countries more than 165 times since mid-October. Last Friday’s strikes against the militias were retaliation for a drone attack against a U.S. outpost in Jordan a week earlier, which killed three Americans and wounded more than 40. The U.S. operation hit 85 militia targets across seven locations, including Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities.
A day later in Yemen, the U.S. and the United Kingdom hit 36 Houthi targets in the latest attempt to degrade the group’s drone and missile capabilities, which have harassed civilian ships in the Red Sea for months. President Joe Biden’s administration has stated repeatedly that additional military action against militias in Iraq, Syria and Yemen is all but guaranteed.
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