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Skip to contentSkip to site index Search & Section Navigation Section Navigation SEARCH SUBSCRIBE FOR $1/WEEKLog in Monday, February 5, 2024 Today’s Paper SUBSCRIBE FOR $1/WEEK Middle East Crisis * Updates * Iran’s Control Over Proxy Forces * The Rise of the Houthis * Economic Damage * Israel-Hamas War SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Current time in: Jerusalem Feb. 5, 5:41 p.m. LiveUpdated Feb. 5, 2024, 9:35 a.m. ET6 minutes ago 6 minutes ago MIDDLE EAST CRISISBLINKEN ARRIVES IN MIDEAST TO RALLY SUPPORT FOR CEASE-FIRE PLAN * Share full articleShare free access * * 1. Destroyed buildings in Gaza City. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images 2. Palestinian children receiving food aid in Rafah. Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters 3. Israeli soldiers near the border with Gaza. Menahem Kahana/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images 4. Palestinians carrying a body from a destroyed mosque in Deir al Balah, Gaza. Mohammed Saber/EPA, via Shutterstock 5. Smoke rising above Khan Younis. Said Khatib/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images 6. The funeral of an Israeli soldier at Mount Herzl National Cemetery in Jerusalem. Amir Levy/Getty Images 7. Treating wounded children at a hospital in Deir al Balah. Adel Hana/Associated Press HERE’S WHAT WE KNOW: The U.S. secretary of state aims to prevent the Israel-Hamas conflict from widening further. Hamas is still discussing a proposal to pause fighting and release hostages, an affiliated broadcaster reported. * Blinken arrives in Saudi Arabia, hoping to rally support for a peace framework for Gaza. * Hamas is still weighing a proposal to halt fighting. * Israelis cancel a flower festival near Gaza after residents say, ‘Don’t come.’ * Biden has ordered further retaliation over the killings of U.S. soldiers, officials say. * Here’s how the latest U.S.-led strikes have unfolded. BLINKEN ARRIVES IN SAUDI ARABIA, HOPING TO RALLY SUPPORT FOR A PEACE FRAMEWORK FOR GAZA. Image Antony J. Blinken, the secretary of state, arriving in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Monday. He was greeted by Mohammed Al-Ghamdi of the Saudi foreign affairs ministry.Credit...Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken began a Middle East trip on Monday that is meant to prevent a broader war in the region, and to rally allies around a proposal to release hostages held in Gaza. The visit comes as the Biden administration pursues retaliatory strikes against Iran-backed militias that have targeted U.S. troops. Mr. Blinken landed in Saudi Arabia in his fifth trip to the region since the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel. U.S. officials said he hopes to advance talks on a series of interlocking deals to end the war in Gaza and will hold meetings with leaders in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Israel and the West Bank — all key players in negotiations over a potential pause in the fighting. The Biden administration and its Arab allies are still awaiting a response from Hamas to a framework for a deal that would involve the exchange of more than 100 Israeli hostages held in Gaza for a pause in fighting and the release of Palestinians detained in Israeli jails. A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to detail the diplomatic efforts, said Mr. Blinken will tell American allies in the region that the Biden administration’s recent strikes against Iran-backed militias should not be interpreted as an escalation of fighting in the Middle East. The U.S. has conducted dozens of military strikes in recent days on targets in Iraq and Syria, in retaliation for the killing of three U.S. service members at a base near the Syrian border in Jordan. And American and British warplanes, with support from allies, have carried out a new round of airstrikes against the Iranian-backed Houthi militia in Yemen in an effort to deter the group from attacking ships in the Red Sea. In Israel, Mr. Biden’s top diplomat will convey American concerns about the rising number of civilian deaths in Gaza. More than 27,000 Palestinians have been killed since Oct. 7, according to the Gazan health ministry, and nearly two million people have been displaced by the fighting. “We’ve been equally clear that we have to look out for and respond to the immense and terrible suffering of the Palestinian people,” Mr. Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Sunday. “And that means pressing Israel on issues related to the humanitarian assistance that we have helped unlock and get into the Gaza Strip, and there needs to be much more of it.” Mr. Blinken will also discuss what diplomats call the “day-after” plans for administering Gaza after the fighting ends, including a possible role for the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The Biden administration is also hoping to make progress toward getting Saudi Arabia to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, a long-term objective that the United States sees as important to stabilizing the Middle East. Under a proposed deal, the United States would offer Saudi Arabia a defense treaty, help with a civilian nuclear program and increase arms sales, while the Saudis and Americans would, in theory, get Israel to accept conditions for concrete steps toward the creation of a Palestinian state in return for Saudi recognition. — Zolan Kanno-Youngs reporting from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Show more HAMAS IS STILL WEIGHING A PROPOSAL TO HALT FIGHTING. Image A destroyed building in Rafah, Gaza, on Sunday.Credit...Haitham Imad/EPA, via Shutterstock Israel was waiting on Monday for Hamas officials to respond to a proposal to pause the fighting in the Gaza Strip and release the remaining hostages there, as Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken returned to the region seeking to rally support for such a deal. A broadcaster affiliated with Hamas, Al-Aqsa, reported on Sunday that Hamas was still holding consultations on the proposal, a week after it was formulated. Leaders of the group had previously signaled that substantial gaps remained between the two sides, even as representatives from the United States, Egypt and Qatar sought common ground. Mr. Blinken, who landed in Saudi Arabia on Monday afternoon, is hoping to advance talks on a series of interlocking deals to end the war in Gaza, and a deal for a hostage release will be central to that effort. Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that “the ball is in Hamas’s court.” A deal that would release hostages, pause fighting and allow humanitarian aid to reach Gaza is of “paramount” importance, he added. “We’re going to press for it relentlessly, as the president has done, including recently in calls with the leaders of Egypt and Qatar, the two countries that are our central brokers in this effort,” Mr. Sullivan said. The Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, during which Israeli officials have said about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 others taken hostage, ignited a war with Israel and touched off a wider crisis in the Middle East. Israel has traded fire with members of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthi militia that controls part of Yemen has fired on ships traveling to and from the Suez Canal. Other Iran-backed militants have launched attacks against U.S. bases in the region, including one recently that the Biden administration said killed three U.S. soldiers in Jordan. The United States has responded to the Houthi attacks with repeated strikes, including on Sunday, and to the Jordan attack with a separate series of military strikes this weekend against Iranian forces and the militias they support at seven sites in Syria and Iraq. Top U.S. national security officials said on Sunday that further retaliation against Iran-backed militias was still planned. But Mr. Sullivan said he believed those efforts were a separate issue from the talks intended to reach a cease-fire deal that has eluded both sides since a one-week pause in November. “We believe that the steps that we took on Friday and the steps we took against the Houthis last night are not connected to the hostage negotiations,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And we believe that now, at this point, it’s up to Hamas to come forward and respond to what is a serious proposal.” — Aaron Boxerman and Michael D. Shear Show more Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT ISRAELIS CANCEL A FLOWER FESTIVAL NEAR GAZA AFTER RESIDENTS SAY, ‘DON’T COME.’ Image A couple in a field of red anemones near Kibbutz Be’eri, Israel, near the border with Gaza, in 2018.Credit...Uriel Sinai for The New York Times The red anemones that carpet the fields and forests of a strip of southern Israel along the Gaza border this time of year usually draw multitudes. Day-trippers typically flock to a monthlong nature festival there known as Red South. But on Friday, organizers abruptly canceled most of the festival events just as they were about to begin, after criticism from residents of the border communities that were worst hit by the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7. Thousands of border residents are still displaced from their homes, many are still in mourning over the attacks that Israeli officials said killed about 1,200 people, and some fear for the fate of relatives who were abducted to Gaza on Oct. 7 and are still being held hostage. “One could write countless clichés about blood and land, about returning, blooming and growth,” one resident of the border area, Bar Heffetz, wrote in a Facebook post on Jan. 30, days before the decision to cancel. But when he saw the signs and toilets for visitors going up in the forests, he said he had two words to share: “Don’t come.” “To make a picnic here is like having a party in your neighbor’s home while he is in the hospital in intensive care, like invading a place when the hosts are absent,” he wrote. The organizers — a local tourism board working with several regional councils and the Jewish National Fund, a forestry and land development organization — had planned a limited, lower-key version of Red South for the weekends of February, mindful of the sensitivities as well as the continued risk of rocket fire from Gaza, where Israel is waging war against Hamas. The military had issued instructions and a map for the public marking the roads closest to the border as off-limits. One event still scheduled to take place is an organized march through the anemone fields on Feb. 16 in memory of Ofir Libstein, a regional council head and a founder of Red South who was shot and killed on Oct. 7 when he left his house to try to defend his village, Kfar Aza. “We are attentive to, and share in, the pain of the residents of the area,” the organizers said in a statement on Friday announcing the cancellations. They said that events including guided hikes, a footrace dedicated to the hostages and an agricultural fair had been called off, but added that local businesses that had reopened would still welcome visitors who arrive independently. — Isabel Kershner reporting from Jerusalem Show more BIDEN HAS ORDERED FURTHER RETALIATION OVER THE KILLINGS OF U.S. SOLDIERS, OFFICIALS SAY. Image John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, at the White House last month.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times Top U.S. national security officials said Sunday that President Biden had ordered further retaliation to the killings of three service members by Iran-backed militias, but declined to say when or how it would be carried out. The officials’ comments followed dozens of military strikes on Friday by U.S. forces on targets in Iraq and Syria. Officials said they were still assessing the effects of those strikes, but they believed they had degraded the ability of the militias to attack U.S. forces. “The president was clear when he ordered them and when he conducted them that that was the beginning of our response and there will be more steps to come,” Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Mr. Sullivan said he did not want to “telegraph our punches” by revealing details of future action. And, he added, the president was trying to calibrate his responses to avoid a sharp escalation of the fighting in the Middle East. John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, rejected criticism from Republican lawmakers who have accused the administration of waiting too long — nearly a week — after the three service members were killed by a drone attack at a base in Jordan, near the border with Syria. “You want to do this in a deliberate way,” Mr. Kirby said on “Fox News Sunday.” “You want to carefully select your targets. You want to make sure that all the parameters are in place to have good effects, including factoring in the weather. I mean, these attacks were using manned aircraft. You want to make sure your pilots can get in and get out safely.” Mr. Kirby also rejected calls from some lawmakers in both parties for the president to request specific authorization from Congress — which has the constitutional power to declare war — before continuing with military actions in the Middle East. Mr. Kirby cited the president’s role as detailed in the Constitution. “The president is acting consistent with his Article Two responsibilities as commander in chief,” he said. “These are self-defense actions that we’re taking to prevent and to take away capability from these groups from targeting our troops and our facilities.” — Michael D. Shear reporting from Washington Show more Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT HERE’S HOW THE LATEST U.S.-LED STRIKES HAVE UNFOLDED. Image The rubble of a destroyed building in Al-Qaim, Iraq, on Saturday after a U.S. airstrike the night before.Credit...Reuters The United States has led a major wave of retaliatory strikes in the Middle East, hitting scores of targets belonging to Iranian-backed armed groups since Friday. The strikes are a sharp escalation of hostilities in the region, one that President Biden had sought to avoid since the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza began in October. Here is how the latest strikes have unfolded. Jan. 28: Three U.S. service members were killed and dozens of others were injured in a drone attack on their remote military outpost in Jordan, the Pentagon said. They were the first known American military fatalities from hostile fire in the Middle East since October, when regional tensions rose with the start of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. The Biden administration said the drone had been launched by an Iran-backed militia from Iraq, and Mr. Biden pledged to respond. The U.S. has blamed Iranian-backed armed groups for launching more than 150 attacks since October on U.S. troops stationed in the Middle East. Jan. 30: Mr. Biden said he had decided on a response to the attack in Jordan, but did not say what it would be. Some Republican lawmakers called for a direct strike against Iran, but Mr. Biden’s advisers said he was determined to avoid a wider regional conflict. Friday: The United States carried out airstrikes on more than 85 targets in Syria and Iraq, aiming at Iranian-backed forces including the group it said was responsible for the Jordan strike. The Pentagon said the strikes targeted command and control operations, intelligence centers, weapons facilities and bunkers used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force and affiliated militia groups. Afterward, U.S. officials said that Mr. Biden had not seriously considered striking inside Iran, and that by targeting facilities used by the powerful Quds Force, while not trying to take out its leadership, the United States sought to signal that it did not want all-out war. Saturday: American and British warplanes, with support from six allies, launched strikes at dozens of sites in Yemen controlled by Houthi militants. A joint statement from the allies said that the targets included weapons storage facilities, missile launchers, air defense systems and radars, and that the strikes were intended to deter the Houthis’ attacks on Red Sea shipping. Sunday: Shortly after the Houthis said they would respond to the U.S. and British strikes, American forces said they had carried out another attack on the group, destroying a cruise missile that had posed “an imminent threat to U.S. Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region.” — Shashank Bengali Show more * Share full articleShare free access * * Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT SITE INDEX SITE INFORMATION NAVIGATION * © 2024 The New York Times Company * NYTCo * Contact Us * Accessibility * Work with us * Advertise * T Brand Studio * Your Ad Choices * Privacy Policy * Terms of Service * Terms of Sale * Site Map * Canada * International * Help * Subscriptions Enjoy unlimited access to all of The Times. See subscription options