No diplomatic breakthrough for the US over Israel-Gaza – so where do we go from here?

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has been busy speaking to as many nations as he can as the death toll in Gaza continues to grow, writes Chris Stevenson. But he has little to show for it

Antony Blinken departs at Ankara airport in Turkey (Reuters)

As Antony Blinken engages in a bout of shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East he has three things he wants to achieve in regards to Israel and Gaza. The problem is that none of them are going well.

The first is to persuade Israel to permit a pause in the fighting to let more aid in and potentially hostages out. Pressure is building for some form of ceasefire as the death toll continues to grow in Gaza – as Israel’s aerial bombardment and associated ground operations continue. That figure is now above 10,000 according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The Pentagon put the number of civilian causalities in the thousands on Monday, without offering a specific number.

During Mr Blinken’s meeting with Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan, the US secretary of state was told that a ceasefire needs to be declared urgently. There was no facetime with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has been highly critical of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an outlier among Nato allies in not expressing full support for Israel’s right to defend itself.