Western diplomats seek to prevent Gaza spillover after 3 months of war

Top US and European diplomats urged leaders in the Middle East on Sunday to keep the Gaza war from spreading across the region, but three months into the conflict, more bloodshed underlined the challenge as Israel presses ahead with its offensive.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the European Union’s top diplomat, foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, were on separate trips to the region to try to quell spillover from the war into Lebanon, the West Bank and Red Sea shipping routes, where Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have said they will keep up attacks until Israel halts its campaign in the Palestinian enclave.

“We have an intense focus on preventing this conflict from spreading,” Blinken said at the onset of his trip. He was in Jordan and Qatar on Sunday and will later travel to Israel, the West Bank, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Jordan’s King Abdullah urged Blinken to use Washington’s influence over Israel to press it for an immediate ceasefire, a palace statement said, warning him of the “catastrophic repercussions” of Israel’s continued military campaign.

Despite global concern over the death and destruction in Gaza and widespread calls for a ceasefire, Israeli public opinion remains firmly behind the operation aimed at wiping out the Hamas group that rules Gaza, although support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fallen sharply.

Netanyahu has vowed to press on with the retaliatory action.

“The war must not be stopped until we achieve all the goals – the elimination of Hamas, the return of all our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel,” Netanyahu said at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday. “I say this to both our enemies and our friends.”