TEL AVIV — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will travel to the Middle East on Tuesday to meet with officials in Israel, the West Bank and Egypt to discuss ongoing violence in Gaza, White House officials said.
Clinton will talk with leaders in Jerusalem, Ramallah and Cairo. She will depart for the region from Phnom Penh, where she was taking part in the East Asia Summit with President Obama.
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The death toll from Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip surpassed 100 on Monday with scant evidence that an Egyptian-brokered truce is in sight.
“The president and Secretary Clinton have been talking about the situation throughout the trip,” said Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, referring to Obama’s four-day trip to Asia, which concludes Tuesday. Obama “met with Secretary Clinton this morning... and they discussed the way forward. ... They concluded the best way to advance discussions with leaders in the region is for Secretary Clinton to take this trip beginning with our close partner Israel.”
Israel faces an increasingly stark choice between deploying ground troops to further weaken the capabilities of rocket-lobbing militants in Gaza and settling into what would almost certainly be a fragile cease-fire with Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the enclave.
In Cairo on Tuesday, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called for an immediate ceasefire. “My message is clear. All sides must halt fire immediately. Further escalating the situation will put the entire region at risk,” Ban told reporters.
Ban met Tuesday morning with Arab League Secretary General Nabil el-Araby to discuss the situation, and was to meet Egyptian President Morsi later Tuesday before traveling to Israel and the West Bank.
Obama spoke with Morsi and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on the phone Monday night and he spoke again to Morsi on Tuesday morning. The Obama administration has been pressuring the Egyptians to help broker a truce. The United States would support an agreement only if it includes an end to rockets being fired into Israeli territory, Rhodes said.
Morsi’s schedule was mixed with sadness on Tuesday after his sister died the previous day after a long illness, according to Egyptian state media. He was attending her funeral Tuesday morning and planned to attend a wake Tuesday evening, state media said.
Hours before Clinton was due to arrive in Israel, police and ambulances were called to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv after a man attacked a guard, witnesses said.
Mickey Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the Israel Police said a 40-year-old Tel Aviv man armed with a knife and an ax attacked a guard at the U.S. embassy at approximately 11:30 a.m. The guard, who was “lightly injured,” fired “warning shots,” Rosenfeld said, but no one else was wounded.
While negotiators in Cairo sought to find common ground Monday, neither Israel nor Hamas appeared ready to give way, and each articulated aims that the other appeared unlikely to accept. Khaled Meshal, the exiled leader of Hamas, said in Cairo that his group did not want a ground war but was “not fearful” of it.
Clinton will talk with leaders in Jerusalem, Ramallah and Cairo. She will depart for the region from Phnom Penh, where she was taking part in the East Asia Summit with President Obama.
Graphic
How Israel's 'Iron Dome' missile defense works
WorldViews
Max Fisher
The clips appear to support the rebels' claim of seizing the base just outside of capital city Damascus.
Max Fisher
Three filmmakers visited the country at a precious moment before its opening.
Max Fisher Pyongyang, however, might not be able or willing to follow Burma's example of reform and opening.
Max Fisher The subtle but significant move is a concession to the government, but does it risk bestowing too much legitimacy on a regime with a long record of abuses?
The death toll from Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip surpassed 100 on Monday with scant evidence that an Egyptian-brokered truce is in sight.
“The president and Secretary Clinton have been talking about the situation throughout the trip,” said Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, referring to Obama’s four-day trip to Asia, which concludes Tuesday. Obama “met with Secretary Clinton this morning... and they discussed the way forward. ... They concluded the best way to advance discussions with leaders in the region is for Secretary Clinton to take this trip beginning with our close partner Israel.”
Israel faces an increasingly stark choice between deploying ground troops to further weaken the capabilities of rocket-lobbing militants in Gaza and settling into what would almost certainly be a fragile cease-fire with Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the enclave.
In Cairo on Tuesday, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called for an immediate ceasefire. “My message is clear. All sides must halt fire immediately. Further escalating the situation will put the entire region at risk,” Ban told reporters.
Ban met Tuesday morning with Arab League Secretary General Nabil el-Araby to discuss the situation, and was to meet Egyptian President Morsi later Tuesday before traveling to Israel and the West Bank.
Obama spoke with Morsi and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on the phone Monday night and he spoke again to Morsi on Tuesday morning. The Obama administration has been pressuring the Egyptians to help broker a truce. The United States would support an agreement only if it includes an end to rockets being fired into Israeli territory, Rhodes said.
Morsi’s schedule was mixed with sadness on Tuesday after his sister died the previous day after a long illness, according to Egyptian state media. He was attending her funeral Tuesday morning and planned to attend a wake Tuesday evening, state media said.
Hours before Clinton was due to arrive in Israel, police and ambulances were called to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv after a man attacked a guard, witnesses said.
Mickey Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the Israel Police said a 40-year-old Tel Aviv man armed with a knife and an ax attacked a guard at the U.S. embassy at approximately 11:30 a.m. The guard, who was “lightly injured,” fired “warning shots,” Rosenfeld said, but no one else was wounded.
While negotiators in Cairo sought to find common ground Monday, neither Israel nor Hamas appeared ready to give way, and each articulated aims that the other appeared unlikely to accept. Khaled Meshal, the exiled leader of Hamas, said in Cairo that his group did not want a ground war but was “not fearful” of it.