Blinken to travel to Middle East to try to rally support for ceasefire

Tel Aviv — Secretary of State Antony Blinken will make another trip to the Middle East next week as the United States tries to increase support for a ceasefire proposal in the Israel-Hamas war announced last week by President Biden.

Blinken will make stops in Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Qatar, the White House said, where he will “discuss with his partners the need to reach a ceasefire agreement guaranteeing the release of all hostages” .

The announcement comes just a day after an international review about an Israeli airstrike on a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza, where thousands of Palestinian civilians have taken refuge. Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, said at least 35 people were killed in the strike.

Dozens of terrorists were hiding behind the refugees, according to Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari, using civilians as human shields.

Hamas “systematically operates from schools, United Nations facilities, hospitals and mosques,” Hagari said.

Two independent weapons experts told CBS News that it appears Israel used American-made GBU-39 bombs in Thursday's attack, the same used in a May 26 airstrike on a camp for displaced Palestinians in central Gaza which left at least 45 dead.

Last month, the United States suspended a shipment of weapons, fearing the munitions could be used in Israel's ground invasion of the southern Gaza town of Rafah. Mr. Biden also said in an interview at the time that “I do not provide the weapons that were historically used to confront Rafah.”

This puts the United States in an uncertain position, being behind some Israeli munitions as well as some of Gaza's humanitarian aid.

Almost two weeks ago, the long awaited pier built by the American army broke apart in rough seas. On Friday, the pier was reconnected.

However, in the barely eight days that the jetty was operational, only a small number of humanitarian trucks actually reached Gaza, and several of them were looted.

Amid the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will come to Washington, DC, next month to address a joint meeting of Congress on July 24.

It is unclear whether Netanyahu will meet with President Biden, given Mr. Biden's growing frustration with Netanyahu's conduct of the war, said Israeli diplomat and staunch Netanyahu critic Alon Pinkas.

“People, according to polls, are beginning to believe that he is prolonging the war for no military or political reason other than his own survival,” Pinkas said.