WASHINGTON
\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Israel during a Monday meeting with its defence minister to avoid further escalation in Lebanon as they discussed efforts to reach a deal to free hostages in Gaza.
\nDefence Minister Yoav Gallant was on a visit to Washington seeking to reaffirm the value of ties with Israel\u2019s top ally, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly chastised the United States for what he said was a delay in weapons deliveries.
\nIn a two-hour meeting with Gallant at the State Department, Blinken discussed indirect diplomacy between Israel and Hamas on an agreement that \u201csecures the release of all hostages and alleviates the suffering of the Palestinian people,\u201d State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
\nBlinken also \u201cunderscored the importance of avoiding further escalation of the conflict and reaching a diplomatic resolution that allows both Israeli and Lebanese families to return to their homes,\u201d Miller said in a statement.
\nTensions have been rising with growing exchanges of fire between Israel and Lebanon\u2019s Iranian-backed movement Hezbollah.
\nNetanyahu has said Israeli forces are winding up the most intense part of the Gaza war and will redeploy to the northern border, although he cast the move as defensive.
\nPresident Joe Biden on May 31 laid out a plan for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages.
\nHamas, which launched the conflict with its October 7 attack on Israel, has come back with its own demands, and the United States hopes the gaps can be bridged.
\nNetanyahu, who has faced major protests calling for him to accept the deal, in recent days has annoyed the Biden administration by accusing Washington of cutting back arms and ammunition deliveries.
\nGallant, without naming Netanyahu, took a different tack.
\n\u201cThe eyes of both our enemies and our friends are on the relationship between the US and Israel,\u201d he told Blinken, according to Gallant\u2019s office.
\n\u201cWe must resolve the differences between us quickly and stand together \u2013 this is how we will achieve our goals and weaken our enemies,\u201d Gallant said.
\nGallant also met CIA chief Bill Burns, the key US point man in negotiations to free hostages from Hamas.
\nGallant said before meeting him that it was Israel\u2019s \u201cprimary commitment to return the hostages, with no exception, to their families and homes.\u201d
\n\u201cWe will continue to make every possible effort to bring them home,\u201d he said.
\nBiden, who has faced criticism from parts of his own base over his support for Israel, held back a shipment that included heavy 2,000-pound bombs.
\nNetanyahu \u2013 who has close relations with Biden\u2019s rivals in the Republican Party \u2013 told a cabinet meeting on Sunday that there was a \u201cdramatic drop in the supply\u201d of US weapons around four months ago.
\nAsked about his latest remark, Miller told reporters, \u201cI don\u2019t understand what that comment meant at all.\u201d
\n\u201cWe have paused one shipment of high-payload munitions. That shipment remains on pause,\u201d Miller told reporters.
\n\u201cThere are other weapons that we continue to provide Israel, as we have done going back years and years, because we are committed to Israel\u2019s security. There has been no change in that,\u201d Miller said.
\n\u201cWe don\u2019t want to see in Rafah what we\u2019ve seen in Gaza City and what we\u2019ve seen in Khan Yunis, which is the end of major combat operations and then the beginning of Hamas reasserting control,\u201d he said, referring to two other major cities targeted by Israel earlier in the war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Israel during a Monday meeting with its defence minister to avoid further escalation in Lebanon as they discussed efforts to reach a deal to free hostages in Gaza. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant was on a visit to Washington seeking to reaffirm the value of ties with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-414575","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n