American Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that he was determined to secure a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas “now” combined with the release of hostages, calling on the Palestinian movement to accept the latest proposal.
In the 7th month of a devastating war triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on October 7 against Israel, Israeli aerial bombardments on the Gaza Strip have seen no respite, causing at least 33 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
Hamas has not yet given its response to the latest proposal providing for a 40-day truce and the exchange of hostages kidnapped during the October 7 attack and taken to Gaza for Palestinian prisoners incarcerated by Israel.
According to an Israeli official, Israel will wait until “Wednesday evening” for a response from Hamas before deciding whether it will send a delegation to Cairo with a view to a possible agreement.
After a meeting in Cairo on Monday of a Hamas delegation with the Egyptian and Qatari mediators, a source close to the movement said that the latter should give its response “as quickly as possible”.
A sign held up by relatives and friends of hostages kidnapped during the Hamas attack on October 7 against Israel, during a demonstration in Tel Aviv in front of a hotel hosting American Secretary of State Antony Blinken, May 1, 2024 / Tomer APPELBAUM / AFP
“Even in these difficult times, we are determined to get a ceasefire that brings the hostages home and to get it now. And the only reason it won’t happen is Hamas,” he said. said Mr. Blinken while meeting President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv.
“Hamas must say yes”
Israeli soldiers aboard combat vehicles parked near the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, April 30, 2024 / Menahem KAHANA / AFP
Mr. Blinken, for whom the new proposal is “extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel”, then told Israeli demonstrators hostile to the war in Tel Aviv: “Hamas must say yes”.
At the end of November, a one-week truce allowed the release of 105 hostages, including 80 Israelis and dual nationals exchanged for 240 Palestinians detained by Israel.
Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007 and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, is primarily demanding a “permanent” ceasefire before any agreement, which Israel refuses.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) meets with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv, May 1, 2024 / Evelyn Hockstein / POOL/AFP
Expert Mairav Zonszein of the International Crisis Group think tank told AFP he was “pessimistic about the option that Hamas would accept a deal that does not include a permanent ceasefire.” .
In Jerusalem, Mr. Blinken, who is on his seventh mission to the Middle East since the start of the war, began a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He was to urge his interlocutor to abandon an announced land offensive against Rafah, in the south of the Palestinian territory devastated by war and on the verge of famine according to the UN.
Mr. Netanyahu reiterated Tuesday that he was determined to carry out a ground offensive in Rafah, a city he considers to be the last bastion of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and where around 1.5 million Palestinians are crowded together, largely majority of the displaced.
“The idea of stopping the war before having achieved all our objectives is out of the question. We will enter Rafah and eliminate the Hamas battalions there, with or without an agreement” of truce, he said.
Fighting and bombing in Gaza
On October 7, Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza in southern Israel carried out an attack which resulted in the death of 1,170 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP report established from official Israeli data.
More than 250 people have been kidnapped and 129 remain captive in Gaza, 34 of whom have died according to Israeli officials.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to annihilate Hamas and its army launched a large-scale offensive – air then land – in the besieged strip, which has so far left 34,568 dead, mostly civilians, according to the Ministry of Security. Health of Hamas.
Palestinians gather with jerry cans and other containers to collect water from a cistern in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on April 30, 2024 / – / AFP
Before dawn, the Israeli air force carried out several strikes in the north and center of the Palestinian territory, including the Nusseirat refugee camp where witnesses reported clashes between Palestinian fighters and Israeli soldiers.
While the war has caused a “humanitarian hell” in Gaza according to UN chief Antonio Guterres, displaced families in Rafah are suffering, after the cold, the rising heat, and find themselves threatened, without running water, by the spread of disease and famine.
A child stands behind barbed wire near a camp housing displaced Palestinians in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, April 30, 2024 / – / AFP
International aid, strictly controlled by Israel, arrives in trickles mainly from Egypt via Rafah, but remains very insufficient given the immense needs of the 2.4 million Gazans.
The United States, which is putting pressure on Israel to facilitate the entry of aid by road, is building a floating port facing the Gaza coast to accommodate aid arriving by boat from Cyprus. Israel also opened the Erez crossing near Gaza for aid from Jordan.
“A danger”
Satellite image distributed by Maxar Technologies on April 29, 2024 shows the ship USNS Roy P. Benavidez and a floating dock, off the coast of the Gaza Strip / – / Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies/AFP
After Israeli officials told the New York Times that they expected the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders for their conduct of the war in Gaza, President Herzog said: a possible indictment would represent “a danger for democracies”.
According to the American daily, the ICC is also considering indicting Hamas leaders.
Clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators on the campus of UCLA University in Los Angeles, according to the CNN channel, May 1, 2024 / ETIENNE LAURENT / AFP
In the United States, where many university leaders are facing demonstrators who occupy their campuses to oppose the Israeli offensive in Gaza, clashes broke out between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators on the campus of UCLA University in Los Angeles, according to CNN.
