Blinken heads to the Middle East as Israel strikes Beirut
· RTE.ieUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken is travelling to the Middle East to begin another push for a ceasefire, seeking to revive negotiations to end the Gaza war and defuse the spillover conflict in Lebanon.
Mr Blinken's trip to the region is his 11th since the attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on 7 October 2023, which triggered the Gaza war.
It comes as Israel intensifies its military campaign against Iran-backed militias - Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel carried out several strikes in Beirut's southern suburbs, including one near the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the capital's main government hospital.
The Lebanese health ministry said four people were killed, including a child, and 24 others were wounded.
The Israeli military said it struck a "Hezbollah terrorist target" near the hospital and the facility was not hit, adding that the armed group "systematically embeds its terrorist assets into the civilian population."
In the last month, Israel has assassinated the leaders of Hezbollah in Lebanon and of Hamas in Gaza, while showing no sign of reining in its ground and aerial offensives.
Killing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week after a year-long search was a major victory for Israel.
However, its leaders say the war must go on until the Islamist group is eliminated as a military and security threat to Israel.
Iran and its allies have said Sinwar's death in a gun battle with Israeli soldiers in Gaza will strengthen their resolve.
Mr Blinken will discuss with leaders in Israel and neighbouring Arab states the importance of ending the war in Gaza, ways to chart a post-conflict plan for the Palestinian enclave, and how to reach a diplomatic solution to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the US State Department said in a statement.
US says UN resolution on its own not enough
US envoy Amos Hochstein held talks with Lebanese officials in Beirut on conditions for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Mr Hochstein said that it was "not enough" for both sides to commit to UN resolution 1701, which ended the last round of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 and which calls for southern Lebanon to be free of any troops or weapons other than those of the Lebanese state.
The US envoy said neither Hezbollah nor Israel had adequately implemented the UN resolution, and that while it would be the basis for the end to current hostilities, the US was seeking to determine what more needed to be done to make sure it was implemented "fairly, accurately and transparently".
Israel has pursued a ground campaign over the past month after a year of border clashes touched off by Hezbollah rockets fired into Israel in support of Hamas in Gaza.
Meanwhile, in the Syrian capital, Damascus, at least two people were killed and three others injured in an apparent guided missile attack on a car, Syrian state television said, quoting a military source who attributed the attack to Israel.
Lebanon's health ministry said that the death toll since Israel's offensive began had risen to 2,483, with 11,628 injured. Israeli authorities say 59 people have been killed in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights over the same period.
Israel's campaign in Lebanon has driven 1.2 million people from their homes. It says its aim is to drive Hezbollah fighters from the border region so tens of thousands of Israelis can return to homes they were forced to flee over the past year due to Hezbollah cross-border fire in solidarity with Palestinians.