Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahuurged the international community on Sunday to pressure Hamas to reach a truce in Gaza, shortly before a new visit by the US Secretary of State to Israel.
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The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinkenwill arrive in Israel on Sunday evening and meet with Netanyahu on Monday morning, before the resumption of indirect negotiations for a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas, scheduled for next week in Cairo.
This is Blinken’s ninth trip to the Middle East since the start of the war more than ten months ago in the small Palestinian enclave.triggered by a deadly Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7.
Netanyahu on Sunday called for “pressure to be directed at Hamas” and “not at the Israeli government,” and denounced the Palestinian Islamist movement’s “obstinate refusal” to agree to a truce.
“There are things we can be flexible on and others we cannot,” he said. “That is why, in addition to our considerable efforts to recover our hostages, we remain firm on the principles (…) essential to Israel’s security,” he added.
The mediating countries, the United States, Qatar and Egypt, reported progress in the talks after a first round on Thursday and Friday in Doha, and Israeli negotiators said they were “moderately optimistic.”
“The feeling, particularly among those who were involved in the mediation in Doha, is that the various deadlocks that existed before can be overcome and that efforts will continue,” said a US official accompanying Blinken.
US President Joe Biden said on Friday that such an agreement was “close”.
But for the Palestinian Islamist movement, which refused to take part in the talks, Biden’s statement is an “illusion.”
“We are not dealing with a real agreement or negotiations, but rather with the imposition of American dictates,” said Sami Abu Zohri, a member of Hamas’s political bureau.
The United States presented a new proposal for the agreement on Friday, but the Islamist movement rejects any revised proposal and calls for the implementation of the plan announced by Biden at the end of May.
“Conclude the agreement”
During his visit to Israel, Blinken will seek to “conclude the ceasefire agreement and the release of hostages and detainees,” the State Department said.
The plan presented by Biden on May 31 provides for a first phase of six weeks of truce with an Israeli withdrawal from the densely populated areas of Gaza and an exchange of the hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
In the second phase, the proposal includes a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
With a truce in Gaza, mediators are also seeking to reduce tensions in the rest of the Middle East.
Iran and its allies, including Hezbollah, have vowed to avenge the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in an attack blamed on Israel on July 31 in Tehran, a day after the military chief of the Lebanese Islamist movement was killed in an Israeli bombing near Beirut.
The war in Gaza broke out on October 7, when Islamist militants killed 1,198 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 251 in southern Israel, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
Of the total number of abductees, 111 remain in Gaza, although 39 have been declared dead by the Israeli army.
The Israeli offensive in Gaza has left at least 40,099 dead, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, which did not specify how many were civilians and how many were combatants.
“The tanks are approaching”
On the ground, the Israeli offensive did not cease during the negotiations.
The Gaza Civil Defense, which has been ruled by Hamas since 2007, reported 11 dead on Sunday in bombings in Jabaliya in the north and Deir al-Balah in the center.
“Are these women and children part of the resistance? Were they fighting in their sleep? They are women and children and they are now in the morgue,” said Ahmed Abu Jeir, a witness to a bombing that killed a mother and her six children in Deir al-Balah.
AFP footage showed Palestinians fleeing a makeshift camp in the Khan Yunis region on foot, by car or on carts after Israeli tanks took up position on a nearby hill.
“The artillery fire is incessant and the Israeli tanks are not far away,” said Lina Saleha in the Al Mawasi displaced persons camp near Khan Younis.
“The tanks are coming closer, we are very scared, we really don’t know where to go,” he added.
The war in Gaza has led to a disastrous humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory, where most of its 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced.
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