Blinken urges Israeli officials to avoid further escalation with Hezbollah (2024)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israeli officials during a meeting on Thursday of the need to avoid further escalation in Lebanon amid the war in Gaza, the State Department said.

Blinken was meeting Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and Ron Dermer, Israel's minister for strategic affairs.

According to the State Department, Blinken also emphasized the need to take additional steps to surge humanitarian aid into Gaza and plan for post-conflict governance, security, and reconstruction.

The U.S. military's floating pier off Gaza has resumed bringing humanitarian aid into the Israeli-besieged Palestinian territory, the Pentagon said on Thursday, even as aid continues to collect in a nearby marshalling area since the United Nations has not restarted transporting it to warehouses.

The pier had been re-attached to the shore on Wednesday after being temporarily removed last Friday due to poor sea conditions, the latest challenge to the effort that has been hampered by bad weather since it was put into place in May.

"Overnight, the transfer of humanitarian assistance from Cyprus to Gaza resumed with more than 656 metric tons, or 1.4 million pounds, being delivered to the marshalling yard in Gaza today," Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder told reporters.

At a demonstration against the government in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's private residence in Caesarea, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, Einav Zangauker, said: "We came to tell the Prime Minister, we will not allow you to play petty politics on the backs of the hostages."

She added, "We will not let you abandon the hostages, abandon the north and take an entire country captive for your political survival. It will not happen."

The UnXeptable Israeli expat protest movement, which recently launched a campaign to push Congressional leadership to rescind the invitation, shared a video of Financial Times editor Ed Luce calling for the same move.

"Netanyahu is a bad actor, he has bitten the hand that feeds him again and again and again," Luce told MSNBC's Morning Joe. "I'm really puzzled as to why people like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer signed on to Netanyahu speaking, and I don't think it's too late to rescind that invitation."

Sirens sound in Ein HaShlosha.

WASHINGTON – U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said, "I'm not exactly sure what the prime minister is talking about," warning a public back-and-forth would not be "productive."

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WASHINGTON – Rep. Ritchie Torres, who has emerged as Israel's most ardent defender and critic of the progressive left within the Democratic Party, issued a rare critique of Netanyahu.

"If you are looking to undermine the bipartisanship of the U.S.-Israel relationship, then release a public video attacking the Biden Administration, which, despite hysterical opposition from the far left, has held firm in support of Israel for eight months and counting," he said.

"Disagreements should be had in private. Hamas is emboldened by even the appearance of a ruptured relationship," Torres added.