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Gaza: Blinken in Qatar to seek 'enduring end' to war

Gaza: Blinken in Qatar to seek 'enduring end' to war
MENA
14 min read
06 February, 2024
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is hoping to shore up support for a truce deal hashed out in Paris in January, but not yet agreed to by Hamas or Israel.

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Qatar on Tuesday as part of a Middle East crisis tour seeking a new truce and "an enduring end" to the Gaza war.

It comes after Blinken arrived in Egypt earlier on Tuesday, the day after he held talks in Riyadh with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The trip, Blinken's fifth to the region since the start of the nearly four-month-long war, will also see the top US diplomat travel to Israel.

Blinken's diplomatic push has been given fresh urgency as Israeli forces press further south towards Rafah, a Palestinian city on the southern border with Egypt where more than half the population of the Gaza Strip has taken shelter. There have long been fears Israel will use the war to push Palestinians into Egypt.

Shellings and raids continued Tuesday morning amid Israel's relentless deadly war on the besieged Gaza Strip.

"No place is safe, no place at all, where shall we go?" Palestinian Mohamad Kozaat said after six members of his family, including his daughter, were injured in an Israeli strike on the border town.

Israel's war on Gaza has so far killed at least 27,585 people, according to the health ministry in the enclave.

The latest toll includes 107 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, while a total of 66,978 people have been wounded in Gaza since the war broke out on 7 October.

Blinken is hoping to shore up support for a truce deal hashed out in Paris in January, but not yet signed off on by either Hamas or Israel.

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