Jerusalem - US top diplomat Antony Blinken on Tuesday vowed support to help rebuild the battered Gaza Strip and shore up a truce between Hamas and Israel, but insisted the territory’s Islamist militant rulers would not benefit from any aid.
Blinken’s tour, which started in Israel and will also take him to neighbouring Egypt and Jordan, comes as unrest still grips parts of annexed east Jerusalem after Friday’s ceasefire ended 11 days of fighting in and around the Gaza Strip. At a joint news conference in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas later in the West Bank, Blinken warned that Washington would not allow international aid to rebuild impoverished Gaza to benefit Hamas.
“We’ll work with our partners closely, with all, to ensure that Hamas does not benefit from the reconstruction assistance,” Blinken said. Netanyahu warned that Israel would respond very strongly if Hamas violated the truce.
“If Hamas breaks the calm and attacks Israel, our response will be very powerful,” the Israeli premier said.
Blinken, who said earlier his trip would aim to support “efforts to solidify a ceasefire”, had no contacts with Hamas, which is blacklisted as a terror group by Washington and most other Western governments.
“The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself,” he reiterated.
US President Joe Biden said Blinken would meet “with Israeli leaders about our ironclad commitment to Israel’s security”, as well as seeking to rebuild ties with the Palestinians.
Blinken on Sunday reaffirmed US support for a two-state solution as the only way to provide hope to Israelis and Palestinians that they can live “with equal measures of security, of peace and dignity”.