Reaching an agreement on Gaza “is extremely urgent”, it is necessary to “put an end to the hostage situation and avoid an escalation” in the area. The US Secretary of State said this, Antony Blinkenat the end of his day of meetings in Israel. Blinken added that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu Confirms Support for US Truce Proposal. As for the search for an agreement, “we will never give up as the US,” he added.
The secretary of state said the United States and Israel are working on a plan to vaccinate Gazans against polio after the besieged territory reported its first case of the disease in 25 years.
“We are working with the Israeli government on this, and I think we will be able to move forward with a plan to implement this in the coming weeks,” Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv. “It is urgent. It is vital,” Blinken said. The United Nations has said it already has detailed plans to vaccinate children across the Gaza Strip and could begin this month. However, that would require a pause in the fighting, and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for two seven-day pauses in the Gaza war to vaccinate the territory’s more than 640,000 children. Blinken, who did not say how the vaccination would unfold, said he had a “detailed” discussion about the humanitarian situation in Gaza with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.