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| - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed Tuesday to help rebuild the war-battered Gaza Strip and shore up the Israel-Palestinian ceasefire, but insisted the enclave's Islamist rulers Hamas would not benefit from any aid. His visit comes after Friday's truce ended 11 days of heavy fighting in and around the Gaza Strip and southern Israel, and as unrest grips annexed east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. Speaking in a Jerusalem joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Blinken said Washington would support international efforts to rebuild impoverished Gaza. But he stressed that the US -- which considers Hamas a terror group -- will "work with our partners closely, with all, to ensure that Hamas does not benefit from the reconstruction assistance". Netanyahu meanwhile warned that Israel remained ever ready to defend itself and said: "If Hamas breaks the calm and attacks Israel, our response will be very powerful." US President Joe Biden's top diplomat, who later also met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah, is on a Mideast tour that will next take him to Egypt, which brokered the truce, then Jordan. Blinken in talks with Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz "emphasised the need for Israelis and Palestinians to be able to live in safety and security, as well as enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity and democracy", the State Department said. The phrase "equal measures" signalled a change in tone from that of former US president Donald Trump's administration whose Middle East peace plan was rejected by Palestinians as heavily biased in Israel's favour. Blinken again stressed that "the United States fully supports Israel's right to defend itself". He also said Israelis and Palestinians face an uphill struggle to restore trust, after the conflict in Gaza and unrest in the West Bank. Peace talks have stalled since 2014, including over the status of east Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank. "There's lots of hard work ahead to restore hope, respect and some trust across the communities," Blinken said. "But we've seen the alternative and I think that should cause all of us to redouble our efforts to preserve the peace and improve the lives of Israelis and Palestinians alike." Israeli air strikes and artillery fire on Gaza killed 253 Palestinians, including 66 children, and wounded over 1,900 people in 11 days of conflict from May 10, the health ministry in Gaza says. Rocket and other fire from Gaza claimed 12 lives in Israel, including one child and an Arab-Israeli teenager, an Israeli soldier, one India national and two Thai workers, medics say. Some 357 people in Israel were wounded. Blinken's visit comes as tensions simmer in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Hours before Blinken's arrival, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian during an arrest raid on the Amara refugee camp near Ramallah in the West Bank, Palestinian and Israeli security sources said. The man shot dead was a 24-year-old resident at the camp who had been due to marry within a fortnight, medical sources and his family said. The family said an Israeli officer called them and said they had not intended to kill him. "How will an apology help us? Does it bring him back to life?" his sister told AFP. In Jerusalem, Israeli police said an attacker stabbed two young Israeli men on Monday before police shot him dead. The army said one of those wounded was a soldier. Palestinian news agency WAFA identified the casualty as a 17-year-old Palestinian high school student. Overnight Sunday to Monday, Israeli forces rounded up 43 Palestinians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, the Palestinian Prisoners Club said. Israeli police, who operate in east Jerusalem, said late Sunday they had arrested 1,550 suspects and charged 150 over the past two weeks in connection with the "violent events". Abbas, before meeting Blinken, met Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, who hailed what he called the "positive American position" and said discussions came at a "crucial moment". Israel on Tuesday began allowing humanitarian aid to pass into the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing, saying it would permit daily convoys. Patients will be able to travel in and out of Gaza for treatment, and fishing off the enclave's coast can resume, said COGAT, the Israeli military body that administers civilian affairs in Palestinian territories. Gantz told Blinken his ministry planned to "advance reconstruction efforts in Gaza through strengthening the Palestinian Authority, while diminishing the military capacity of terror organisations," the defence ministry said in a statement. The latest military escalation started after clashes in Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam's third holiest site, which is also revered by Jews as the Temple Mount. Israeli forces had moved in on Palestinian worshippers at the site, towards the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. They had also sought to quell protests against the threatened eviction of Palestinian families from homes in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah to make way for Jewish settlers. bur/ah/fz/jkb
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