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U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Wednesday in Doha that an agreement was still possible in long-term talks to establish a ceasefire and release hostages in Gaza. Israel after eight months of war.
On the ground, Israeli bombardment continued targeting various besieged areas in the Gaza Strip, which is suffering from a severe humanitarian crisis.
“I hope a ceasefire will be reached,” said Ahmed al-Rubi, a resident of Buraj camp in central Gaza, a target of Israeli bombing. We are doomed. “We want our suffering to end.”
On Wednesday, Blinken wrapped up his Middle East trip in Qatar, which is home to Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas political bureau.
Late on Tuesday, Hamas proposed amendments in response to a plan presented by President Joe Biden on May 31, including a timetable for a ceasefire and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, a source familiar with the talks said.
UN The Biden plan, adopted by the Security Council, calls for an immediate six-week ceasefire and the release of hostages and “withdrawal of Israeli forces from the population” in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Areas in Gaza.”
No further details of the response were provided.
Blinken told reporters that the United States had reviewed the proposals put forward by Hamas on Tuesday, adding that “some changes are implementable, others are not.”
“We are committed to filling the gaps,” he continued. I believe these gaps can be bridged. This does not mean that these gaps will decrease, because ultimately Hamas will have to decide,” adding, “This will continue for a long time, and people will suffer, and it is time to stop negotiating.”
– “Adjustment” –
Biden described the plan as Israeli, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will continue the war until Hamas, which launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, is eliminated.
The response to Hamas mediators included “revisions” to the plan announced by Biden, “specifically a timetable for a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip,” a source familiar with the talks said.
These are demands put forward by the Palestinian movement and rejected by Israel, while Israeli media and US website Axios confirmed Hamas’ rejection of the proposal.
However, Hamas leader Izzat al-Rishq said on Tuesday that Hamas “responded positively and seriously to the ceasefire proposal and opened the door to an agreement”.
Blinken said from Doha that Washington would present “key elements of the next day’s plan, including concrete ideas on how to manage governance, security and reconstruction…in the coming weeks”.
– Deadly Israeli bombing –
The war broke out on October 7 after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israeli territory, killing 1,194 people, most of them civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse count based on official Israeli data.
During the attack, 251 hostages were taken, 116 of whom are still in Gaza, and the Israeli military says 41 died.
Israel has responded with a violent campaign of bombings, raids and ground attacks that have so far killed at least 37,202 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to the latest count from the Ministry of Health in the Strip.
The Israeli army continues its bombing and ground operations inside the Gaza Strip, where seven people were killed in an early morning attack on a house in Gaza City, the National Baptist Hospital reported.
In the southern Gaza Strip, a bomb targeting a house in Rafah killed a child and wounded others, a paramedic at Nasser Hospital reported. Aerial bombardment of Khan Younis city continues.
– “War Crimes” –
In Geneva, the UN The commission of inquiry asserted that Israel committed crimes against humanity during the war in Gaza, including “genocide”, and that the Israeli state and Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes.
A report by the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories said Israeli authorities, through their practices in Gaza, were “responsible for war crimes such as systematic starvation of war”.
“Members of Palestinian armed groups…killed, injured, tortured and took hostages, including children, and committed sexual and gender-based violence against members of the Israeli security forces, including civilians and soldiers,” the commission concluded.
Israel quickly rejected the report’s findings, accusing the panel of “systematic discrimination” against it.
– Rising tensions on Israel-Lebanon border –
As the war in Gaza continued, fears of an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel were renewed on Wednesday.
Hezbollah announced that it had targeted Israeli bases with dozens of Katyusha rockets in retaliation for the overnight “assassination” of a leader in its ranks in southern Lebanon, in what is considered the most significant since the start of its cross-border expansion. He pledged to increase its actions against Israel “in scale and quality”.
After midnight on Tuesday and Wednesday, Hezbollah mourned “martyr, mujahid leader Talib Sami Abdullah” and three militants. A Lebanese military source announced that the leader was the “most important” member killed by Israeli fire since the start of the escalation.
The Israeli military confirmed an attack on Hezbollah’s “command headquarters” in the Zoya area that killed Abdullah, who it said had “over the years, planned, supervised and carried out numerous attacks against Israelis”.
On Wednesday morning, sirens sounded as about 160 rockets were fired into northern Israel.
The military carried out strikes in southern Lebanon, which it said hit two launch sites in Yaron and Hanin and “infrastructure” at four Hezbollah bases in Yater.
Bombs fired from southern Lebanon caused fires in northern Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned last week that the Israeli government was “ready to launch a very serious operation” along the Lebanese border.
For his part, Blinken felt that reaching an agreement in Gaza would “significantly” reduce violence between Israel and Hezbollah.
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