BBC:
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has joined a White House meeting with US President Donald Trump to discuss plans for post-war Gaza, the BBC has confirmed.
Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has said the US is putting together a “very comprehensive” plan on “the next day” after the war. However, little else has been disclosed about the meeting.
Blair served as Middle East envoy for a few years after leaving office in 2007 – focusing on bringing economic development to Palestinian areas and creating conditions for a two-state solution.
However, when Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar was asked by reporters what the plan was for a Palestinian state, he said there would not be any.
The White House meeting came after the Israeli military warned Palestinians that the evacuation of Gaza City was “inevitable”, as its forces prepare to conquer it.
Israeli tanks pushed into a new area of the city overnight, destroying houses and forcing more residents to flee, witnesses said.
Thousands of people have already moved because of recent Israeli advances – mostly to other parts of the city, where about a million Palestinians still live.
In early August, Israel announced plans to occupy the whole Gaza Strip – including Gaza City, which it described as Hamas’s last stronghold.
The UN and non-governmental organisations have warned that an Israeli offensive in Gaza City – where a famine was declared last week – would have a “horrific humanitarian impact”.
In a statement on Wednesday, all the members of UN Security Council, with the exception of the US, called the famine in Gaza a “man-made crisis” and expressed “profound alarm and distress” at the latest report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).
The statement called for Israel to immediately “and unconditionally” lift restrictions on humanitarian aid, reiterating that the use of starvation “as a weapon of war” is prohibited by international law.
