Gaza: tense discussions between Israel and the United States, failure of a resolution on a truce at the UN

Israel plans offensive Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip even without US support, said Friday Benjamin Netanyahu to Secretary of State Antony Blinken &at; Tel Aviv, while a resolution from Washington à the UN on an "immediate" was é blocked by Russia and China.

After five and a half months of war between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas in the besieged Palestinian territory, on the verge of famine, Washington, which has repeatedly blocked ceasefire resolutions at the United Nations Security Council, failed on Friday to have a text adopted insisting on the “need for an immediate and lasting ceasefire” in connection with the release of the hostages.

Arrived in morning in Tel Aviv from Cairo, as part of a regional tour, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before participating in a war cabinet meeting .

“I said that we did not have the possibility of defeating Hamas without entering Rafah and eliminating the remaining battalions there. I told him that I hoped to do it with the support of the United States, but s “We have to, we will do it alone,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a statement after his meeting with the American official.

Mr. Blinken toured the region again to support truce talks in Qatar that involve indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas officials.

On the ground, Clashes show no respite across the Palestinian territory, notably in and around the al-Chifa hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army claimed on Friday to have killed more than 150 Palestinian fighters and arrested hundreds of suspects since the start of the week.

– “The gap is narrowing” –

The United Kingdom and Australia called on Friday for an “immediate end to the fighting” to allow “the delivery of aid and the release of hostages” kidnapped in Israel on October 7 during the bloody Hamas attack .

Talces on a truce continue Friday in Doha, where Israeli intelligence chief David Barnea is scheduled to meet with CIA Director William Burns, the Qatari Prime Minister, Mohammed bin Abdelrahman Al-Thani, and the head of the Egyptian intelligence services, Abbas Kamel.

“The gap is narrowing” in these negotiations for a truce associated with a release of hostages, Mr. Blinken said on Thursday, speaking of an agreement “always possible”.

In parallel with these talks, a draft resolution to the UN Security Council, presented by the United States, on an “immediate ceasefire”, was not adopted due to Russian and Chinese vetoes.

The text underlined “the need for an immediate and lasting ceasefire to protect civilians on all sides and enable the delivery of essential humanitarian assistance.”

The Russian ambassador denounced a “hypocritical” text which did not directly call for silencing the guns.

Children queue for water on March 22, 2024 in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, where a war pits Israel against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas © AFP – MOHAMMED ABED

The United States has already vetoed several resolutions calling for a ceasefire, believing that this would have benefited Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the United States, Israel and Israel. 'European Union.

But faced with the “appalling” humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, Washington is intensifying its efforts to achieve a truce, deliver aid and avoid a ground offensive on Rafah, a town on the Egyptian border where, according to the UN, there are around 1.5 million Palestinians, the majority displaced by the war.

New Israeli airstrikes took place during the night from Thursday to Friday in this town, where a house was largely destroyed.

– “Children, innocent people” –

Palestinians walk in front of a house destroyed by an Israeli strike on March 22, 2024 in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, where a war pits Israel against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas © AFP – SAID KHATIB

“The house was hit while people were sleeping. Among them were children and innocent people (…) They were torn to pieces,” said Nabil Abou Thabet, a resident.

War broke out on October 7 when Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza carried out an unprecedented attack in southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of at least 1,160 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.

According to Israel, around 250 people were kidnapped and 130 of them are still hostages in Gaza, of whom 33 are believed to have died.

The northern Gaza Strip and al-Chifa hospital © AFP – Nalini LEPETIT-CHELLA, Jean-Michel CORNU, Hervé BOUILLY

In retaliation, Israel vowed to annihilate Hamas and launched a vast offensive which left a total of 31,988 dead in Gaza, the Islamist movement's Ministry of Health said on Thursday, while early Friday, witnesses reported new deadly strikes.

Israel has imposed a complete siege on the Gaza Strip since the start of the war and strictly controls aid which arrives mainly from Egypt via Rafah. However, these tight controls, according to the UN, have the effect of reducing the number of trucks entering the territory.

Israel regularly rejects accusations that it restricts the help entry.

Photo taken on March 21, 2024 aboard an American military plane which provides aid with parachutes to the Gaza Strip, where Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas are at war © AFP – Giuseppe CACACE

In order to relieve the population, several countries are organizing food airdrops and have opened a maritime corridor from Cyprus to Gaza. But aid remains insufficient to meet the needs of the 2.4 million inhabitants of Gaza and reaches only with great difficulty in the north, where more than 300,000 people live according to the UN.

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