Middle East updates: Blinken in Saudi Arabia on crisis tour

The US State Department on Monday said five units of the Israeli army had been involved in incidents of gross violations of human rights before the war in Gaza.

"After a careful process, we found five Israeli units responsible for individual incidents of gross violations of human rights," spokesman Vedant Patel told a media briefing.

The incidents in question allegedly took place against Palestinians outside of Gaza, before the Hamas-led terror attack on southern Israel in October 2023.

Patel said four of the units "effectively remediated these violations," which he said was expected of partners with whom the US had a security relationship.

Patel said his department was in ongoing consultations with Israel regarding the fifth unit and that additional information had been submitted.

US weapons sales to the units will not be affected, Patel said. He declined to offer specifics on what kind of human rights violations were allegedly committed and which remediation steps were taken.

The deal Hamas has been offered involves a 40-day cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and the release of "potentially thousands" of Palestinian prisoners in return for freeing Israeli hostages, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said on Monday.

Speaking at the Riyadh conference, Cameron joined in the chorus of other diplomats calling on the Palestinian militant-Islamist group to accept the Israeli proposal, which it is currently considering during a visit to the Egyptian capital, Cairo. 

"I hope Hamas do take this deal and frankly, all the pressure in the world and all the eyes of the world should be on them today saying take that deal," Cameron said, adding the proposal would lead to a "stop in the fighting that we all want to see so badly."

Cameron called the deal "a very generous offer," echoing comments made by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier on Monday.

Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization in Israel, the US, Germany and other countries.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also addressed a potential normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel, hinting it was imminent.

Blinken said a US-Saudi security pact that would be offered if the latter normalizes ties with Israel was near "completion." 

"The work that Saudi Arabia and the United States have been doing together in terms of our own agreements, I think, is potentially very close to completion," Blinken said in Riyadh.

The US and Saudi Arabia have done intensive work over the last month on the deal, he added.

When asked about the security pact negotiations, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan said that bilateral agreements between the kingdom and the US were "very very close."

"Most of the work has already been done. We have the broad outlines of what we think needs to happen on the Palestinian front," Faisal bin Farhan said in a panel at the World Economic Forum special meeting in Riyadh.

A normalization deal was reportedly in the works last year, but was frozen after Hamas' deadly attack on Israel on October 7, which Israel says killed 1,200, mostly civilians, with some 250 taken hostage. Israel has in recent years normalized ties with other countries in the region, including the UAE and Bahrain.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has expressed hope that the Palestinian militant group Hamas would "make the right decision" and accept the "extraordinarily generous" deal with Israel on Gaza.

Blinken was speaking in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Monday, while mediations with a Hamas delegation were ongoing in Cairo over an Israeli proposal to which the Palestinian militant group was meant to respond.

The deal could see a pause in the relentless offensive which has gripped the Gaza Strip for almost seven months, killing over 34,000 Palestinians, as per health officials in the Hamas-controlled enclave. It could also see the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza since October 7.

"Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel," Blinken said in Riyadh at the World Economic Forum. "They have to decide — and they have to decide quickly," Blinken said. "I'm hopeful that they will make the right decision."

Meanwhile, the top US diplomat reiterated Washington's opposition to the planned Israeli offensive on Rafah. He said the US has yet to see a plan from Israel regarding the offensive that "effectively" protects civilians.

Some 1.4 million Palestinians are estimated to be displaced in the city of Rafah, on the Egyptian border. Most are taking refuge there after having escaped the violence elsewhere in Gaza.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the US has seen "measurable progress" in the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip over the past few weeks, though he urged Israel to do more.

Speaking at a US-Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Riyadh on Monday, Blinken said a cease-fire would be the most effective way to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. He added that humanitarian aid will be the focus in the coming days.

Blinken also stressed that the Iranian "threat" requires integrated defense.

"This attack highlights the acute and growing threat from Iran but also the imperative that we work together on integrated defense," Blinken said, seemingly in reference to Iranian strikes on Israel some two weeks ago. The US and the UK both supported Israel with countering the Iranian drone and missile strikes, alongside Arab neighbors such as Jordan.

The strikes were in retaliation for what Iran said was an Israeli strike on its embassy complex in Syria earlier in April, which killed several senior officers from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Israeli overnight airstrikes on the border city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip hit three houses, killing at least 20 people, the Reuters news agency quoted medics as saying.

The Associated Press news agency and the French AFP news agency meanwhile counted at least 22 deaths, including six women and five children.

The first attack killed 11 people, including four siblings aged 9 to 27, AP reported. The second killed eight people, including a father and his 5-day-old son, and the third killed three siblings, aged 12 to 23. Some of the bodies were seen by the AP reporter.

Rafah, which lies on the border with Egypt, is currently sheltering some 1.4 million Palestinians who flocked to the city, seeking refuge from the fighting elsewhere across the strip.

Israel has repeatedly said it plans a ground offensive in the city, which it claims is the final stronghold of the Palestinian, militant group Hamas. The UN and several Israeli allies, including the US, have cautioned against such an operation, fearing a humanitarian disaster.

Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by Israel, the US, Germany and other countries.

A Hamas delegation is expected on Monday in Egypt, to respond to Israel's latest proposal for a hostage-release deal and truce in Gaza after nearly seven months of war.

There have been efforts — led by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States — to mediate a deal for months as appeals for an agreement intensify.

A deal aimed at releasing hostages taken in the October 7 attacks, and to reach a cease-fire has been elusive so far. Any agreement is expected to seek to allow more humanitarian relief into the Gaza Strip.

Hamas, listed as a terrorist group in the United States and European Union, told AFP news agency on Sunday it had no "major issues" with the content of Israel's most recent offer for a truce and that the atmosphere was initially "positive." 

Israel's offensive has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians and displaced about 80% of the population, with hundreds of thousands said to be on the brink of famine. The Palestinian death toll figure comes from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, with their number generally seen as reliable by the UN.

Hamas and other Islamist militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the October 7 terror attack, and took another 250 hostages. That attack triggered the ongoing Israeli military campaign in Gaza. 

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is among those taking part in a special meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh.

Organizers say the summit will focus on the situation in the Gaza Strip. 

Among the approximately thousand participants are several heads of state and government as well as numerous foreign ministers from the Middle East and Europe. 

World Economic Forum President Börge Brende on Saturday said there was "some new momentum now in the talks around the hostages, and also for... a possible way out of the impasse we are faced with in Gaza."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken touched down on Monday for talks in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, aimed at pushing an Israel-Hamas cease-fire deal and looking at a future for Gaza.

It is Blinken's seventh visit to the region since the October 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel, which sparked the Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

He is expected to talk to the Saudi leadership about the normalization of relations with Israel — a prospect that Washington hopes might encourage moderation on the part of the Israeli government. 

Blinken is also due to meet European foreign ministers and Gulf Arab leaders visiting for Gulf Cooperation Council talks and a World Economic Forum meeting.

A State Department official said Blinken would discuss "day-after" plans for the reconstruction of post-war Gaza with the leaders and ministers. Israel's war in Gaza is still ongoing.

The meeting with the five Arab states — Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan — is also aimed at furthering discussions on the governance of the Gaza Strip after the war.

From Riyadh, Blinken is set to head to Jordan and Israel. 

rc/wd (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)