US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Tuesday called on Hamas to accept the latest US proposal to declare a truce in the Gaza Strip, but acknowledged that there are still differences with Israel, concluding his ninth tour of the region since October 7.
During the tour, he warned that the ceasefire proposal might be the “last chance” to end the armed conflict.
As the war enters its 320th day, time is “counting,” he said, after successive visits to Qatar, Egypt — countries that mediate with the U.S. in the indirect negotiations — and Israel.
New Israeli bombing of school in Gaza – Children dead
The war, triggered by an unprecedented incursion by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas into southern Israel, is unrelenting. Israeli shelling of a school that had been converted into a shelter for internally displaced people killed at least 12 Palestinians, including children, in Gaza City, according to civil protection.
The Israeli army announced that it targeted “terrorists” who were “hiding”, according to it, in the school.
Israel and Hamas blame each other for the truce
Israel and Hamas blame each other for the deadlock in efforts to reach an agreement, amid international concerns about the spread of war in the region.
“Every day that passes there is a risk of causing more harm to honest people who don’t deserve it,” Mr Blinken told reporters before departing from Doha, the Qatari capital, where he held talks with Minister Mohammed bin Abdulaziz al-Hulaifi .
An agreement is required, “this must be done, it must be done in the coming days. And we will do everything possible to cross the finish line,” he insisted.
Last Friday, Washington submitted a compromise proposal to negotiations in Doha between Israel and mediators. New talks are expected to take place within the week in Egypt.
“Yes, but” from Netanyahu – Blinken finds discrepancies
Mr Blinken said on Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “accepted” the plan and called on Hamas to “do the same”, a claim he repeated yesterday.
But according to Israeli media, Mr. Netanyahu is insisting that Israel’s military retain control of the so-called Philadelphia Corridor, a narrow strip of land along the borders of the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
It has been made “very clear from the beginning that the US does not accept Israel’s long-term occupation of the Gaza Strip,” Mr Blinken said when asked about Mr Netanyahu’s alleged remarks.
He also said that Israel accepted the “locations” and “timing” for the “withdrawal” of its army units.
An American official who accompanied the head of American diplomacy on his tour said, however, on condition of anonymity, that such “maximalist statements” from the Israeli prime minister are not “constructive” in terms of reaching a ceasefire agreement.
Mr Blinken stopped short of acknowledging that gaps remain, calling on Israel and Hamas to show “maximum flexibility”.
Egypt, the first country in the Arab world to strike a peace deal with Israel, is struggling to contain its anger over the Israeli army’s takeover of border controls in May.
“No” to the American proposal from Hamas
Hamas, for its part, emphasized that although it “wants to reach a ceasefire”, it denounces and rejects the “new conditions” set by Israel and included in the most recent American proposal.
The Palestinian movement demands that it be implemented as presented in a previous proposal, which US President Joe Biden referred to at length on May 31 and Hamas assured that it accepts in early July. It called for a six-week ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from densely populated areas of the enclave, the release of Israeli hostages and in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, and then, in a second phase, the complete withdrawal of the Israeli army.
Mr Netanyahu keeps repeating that his aim is to continue the war until Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, is eliminated, which the US and the EU designate as a terrorist organisation.
On October 7, Hamas’ military arm launched an unprecedented raid on southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.
Of the 251 people abducted that day, 105 are believed to be still being held hostage in Gaza, but 34 have been declared dead by the Israeli military.
40,173 people dead in Gaza
Wide-scale Israeli military operations in retaliation have claimed the lives of at least 40,173 people in the Gaza Strip, according to Hamas’ health ministry. According to the UN, the majority of the victims were women and children.
Yesterday Tuesday the Israeli army announced that it recovered the bodies of six Israeli hostages in an operation in an underground tunnel in Khan Yunis (south). The five had been declared dead in recent months; the death of the sixth was announced yesterday.
In the besieged and devastated Gaza Strip, where almost the entire population of 2.4 million has been displaced at least once, Israeli bombardment and ground operations continue unabated.
In addition to the school shelling, six Palestinians were killed in Rafah (south), according to medical sources. While another four people were killed by Israeli fire in the eastern sector of Khan Yunis, according to a doctor.
Seven other people were also killed in Israeli shelling in Deir al-Bala (central), according to civil protection.
For the US, reaching a cease-fire agreement in the Gaza Strip would help prevent a possible attack on Israel by Iran and its allies — the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, the Palestinian movement Hamas, the Yemeni Houthi rebels, Iraqi paramilitaries…
Iran and its allies have vowed revenge for the assassination attributed to Israel of Hamas leader Ismail Haniya in Tehran on July 31 and hours earlier on July 30 of Fouad Shukr, a leading figure in Hezbollah’s military wing, in Israeli aerial bombardment in a southern suburb of Beirut.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health announced today that Israeli shelling killed at least one person and wounded 19 others in the eastern part of the country, hours after four more were killed in shelling in the south.
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