In Qatar, Blinken urges Hamas to accept Gaza truce proposal

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Tuesday Hamas à accept the latest US truce proposal for the Gaza Strip, saying time was “running out” after s more than ten months of war with Israel in the Palestinian territory.

Triggered by an attack of unprecedented scale by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil on October 7, the war in Gaza has not let up and the mediating countries — the United States, Qatar and Egypt — are trying to get the two belligerents to agree on a ceasefire.

Israel and Hamas continue to accuse each other of blocking an agreement, against a backdrop of international concerns about the spread of war in the region.

On the ground, an Israeli strike on Tuesday on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City (north) killed at least 12 Palestinians, including children, according to the local Civil Defense.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) meets with Qatari Minister of State Mohammed bin Abdulaziz al-Khulaifi in Doha on August 20, 2024 © POOL – Kevin MOHATT

The Israeli army, which said it had targeted “terrorists hiding” in the facility, announced that it had recovered in the territory the bodies of six hostages kidnapped during the Hamas attack.

While making his ninth trip to the Middle East since October 7, the head of American diplomacy, whose country is Israel's first ally, met in Doha with Qatari Minister of State Mohammed bin Abdulaziz al-Khoulaifi, without meeting the emir as initially planned.

During their meeting, they stressed the need for “an easing of tensions in the region,” according to the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“Time is running out,” Mr. Blinken then said on the tarmac of the airport before his departure from Doha, the last stop on a tour that took him to Israel and then Egypt.

Photo released by the Egyptian presidency of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (R) and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in El-Alamein, Egypt, on August 20, 2024 © EGYPTIAN PRESIDENCY – –

On Friday, Washington submitted a compromise proposal for a truce during negotiations in Doha between Israel and the mediators, and further talks are expected in Egypt this week.

Blinken said Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “accepted” the plan and called on Hamas to “do the same.” He reiterated the request on Tuesday.

– “Not constructive” statements –

Paramedics carry a body from the site of an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people, in Gaza City, on August 20, 2024 © AFP – Omar AL-QATTAA

Hamas had rejected the American proposal, accusing the United States of having included “new conditions” from Israel, including the maintenance of its troops on the Gaza border with Egypt and “a right of veto” on Palestinian prisoners held by Israel who could be exchanged for hostages.

The Palestinian movement is demanding the implementation of a plan announced on May 31 by the American president, Joe Biden, and which he had accepted in early July, providing for a six-week truce accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of hostages, then, in a second phase, a total Israeli withdrawal from the besieged territory.

200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000

Mr. Biden criticized Hamas for “backtracking” while the movement said it was “keen to reach an agreement”.

Palestinian women cry after an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people, in Gaza City, August 20, 2024 © AFP – Omar AL-QATTAA

A senior US official accompanying Antony Blinken on his tour on Tuesday criticised statements attributed to Mr Netanyahu on Israel's continued control of the Gaza-Egypt border, saying they were “not constructive” in the midst of negotiations.

On this subject, Mr Blinken declared that the United States rejected a “long-term” Israeli occupation of Gaza.

The Israeli prime minister has repeatedly said he wants to continue the war until the destruction of Hamas, which has been in power in Gaza since 2007 and is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the United States and the European Union.

– Four dead in Lebanon –

Hostages in Gaza © AFP – Paz PIZARRO, Bertille LAGORCE, Jean-Philippe CHOGNOT

On October 7, Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza into neighboring southern Israel launched an attack which resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people on the Israeli side, the majority civilians, according to a count by the AFP based on official data.

Of 251 people kidnapped that day, 105 are still being held in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the army.

The Israeli offensive carried out in retaliation left at least 40,173 dead, according to the Hamas government's Ministry of Health, which does not detail the number of civilians and fighters killed. According to the UN, most of the dead are women and minors.

On Tuesday, the army announced that it had recovered the bodies of six Israeli hostages during an operation in a tunnel in Khan Younis (south). Five of them had been declared dead in recent months, the sixth was announced on Tuesday.

In the devastated Gaza Strip, where almost all of the 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced, Israeli bombardments continue.

In addition to the strike on the school, six Palestinians were killed in Rafah (south), according to medical sources. Another medical source reported four deaths in Israeli fire on the east of Khan Younis.

Seven people were also killed in an Israeli bombardment in Deir al-Balah (center), the Civil Defense said.

For the United States, a ceasefire in Gaza should also help prevent a possible attack on Israel by Iran and its allies — Lebanon's Hezbollah, Hamas and Yemen's Houthi rebels.

A wounded Palestinian is taken to Nasser Hospital after a bombing raid on Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on August 20, 2024 © AFP – Bashar TALEB

The latter have threatened to retaliate for the assassination, attributed to Israel, of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31, and that of Hezbollah military leader Fouad Chokr, killed the day before in an Israeli strike near Beirut.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said four people were killed Tuesday in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon while Hezbollah said it had launched rockets and drones at Israeli positions on their common border.

The day after the war in Gaza began, the Lebanese Islamist movement opened a front in support of the Palestinians against Israel.

All reproduction and representation rights reserved. © (2024) Agence France-Presse