Tag: palestine

US vetoes widely supported resolution backing full UN membership for Palestine

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The United States vetoed a widely backed U.N. resolution Thursday that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for Palestine, a goal the Palestinians have long sought and Israel has worked to prevent.

The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 12 in favor, the United States opposed and two abstentions, from the United Kingdom and Switzerland. U.S. allies France, Japan and South Korea supported the resolution.

The strong support the Palestinians received reflects not only the growing number of countries recognizing their statehood but almost certainly the global support for Palestinians facing a humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Gaza, now in its seventh month.

The resolution would have recommended that the 193-member U.N. General Assembly, where there are no vetoes, approve Palestine becoming the 194th member of the United Nations. Some 140 countries have already recognized Palestine, so its admission would have been approved, likely by a much higher number of countries.

U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told the Security Council that the veto “does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood but instead is an acknowledgment that it will only come from direct negotiations between the parties.”

The United States has “been very clear consistently that premature actions in New York — even with the best intentions — will not achieve statehood for the Palestinian people,” deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said.

His voice breaking at times, Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the council after the vote: “The fact that this resolution did not pass will not break our will and it will not defeat our determination.”

“We will not stop in our effort,” he said. “The state of Palestine is inevitable. It is real. Perhaps they see it as far away, but we see it as near.”

This is the second Palestinian attempt for full membership and comes as the war in Gaza has put the more than 75-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict at center stage.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas first delivered the Palestinian Authority’s application for U.N. membership in 2011. It failed because the Palestinians didn’t get the required minimum support of nine of the Security Council’s 15 members.

They went to the General Assembly and succeeded by more than a two-thirds majority in having their status raised from a U.N. observer to a non-member observer state in 2012. That opened the door for the Palestinian territories to join U.N. and other international organizations, including the International Criminal Court.

Algerian U.N. Ambassador Amar Bendjama, the Arab representative on the council who introduced the resolution, called Palestine’s admission “a critical step toward rectifying a longstanding injustice” and said that “peace will come from Palestine’s inclusion, not from its exclusion.”

In explaining the U.S. veto, Wood said there are “unresolved questions” on whether Palestine meets the criteria to be considered a state. He pointed to Hamas still exerting power and influence in the Gaza Strip, which is a key part of the state envisioned by the Palestinians.

Wood stressed that the U.S. commitment to a two-state solution, where Israel and Palestine live side-by-side in peace, is the only path for security for both sides and for Israel to establish relations with all its Arab neighbors, including Saudi Arabia.

“The United States is committed to intensifying its engagement with the Palestinians and the rest of the region, not only to address the current crisis in Gaza, but to advance a political settlement that will create a path to Palestinian statehood and membership in the United Nations,” he said.

Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, reiterated the commitment to a two-state solution but asserted that Israel believes Palestine “is a permanent strategic threat.”

“Israel will do its best to block the sovereignty of a Palestinian state and to make sure that the Palestinian people are exiled away from their homeland or remain under its occupation forever,” he said.

He demanded of the council and diplomats crowded in the chamber: “What will the international community do? What will you do?”

Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have been stalled for years, and Israel’s right-wing government is dominated by hard-liners who oppose Palestinian statehood.

Israeli U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan called the resolution “disconnected to the reality on the ground” and warned that it “will cause only destruction for years to come and harm any chance for future dialogue.”

Six months after the Oct. 7 attack by the Hamas militant group, which controlled Gaza, and the killing of 1,200 people in “the most brutal massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” he accused the Security Council of seeking “to reward the perpetrators of these atrocities with statehood.”

Israel’s military offensive in response has killed over 32,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and destroyed much of the territory, which speaker after speaker denounced Thursday.

After the vote, Erdan thanked the United States and particularly President Joe Biden “for standing up for truth and morality in the face of hypocrisy and politics.”

He called the Palestinian Authority — which controls the West Bank and the U.S. wants to see take over Gaza where Hamas still has sway — “a terror supporting entity.”

The Israeli U.N. ambassador referred to the requirements for U.N. membership – accepting the obligations in the U.N. Charter and being a “peace-loving” state.

“How can you say seriously that the Palestinians are peace loving? How?” Erdan asked. “The Palestinians are paying terrorists, paying them to slaughter us. None of their leaders condemns terrorism, nor the Oct. 7 massacre. They call Hamas their brothers.”

Despite the Palestinian failure to meet the criteria for U.N. membership, Erdan said most council members supported it.

“It’s very sad because your vote will only embolden Palestinian rejectionism every more and make peace almost impossible,” he said.

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Israeli military chief promises response to Iran’s weekend assault

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Israel’s military chief said Monday that Israel will respond to Iran’s weekend missile strike, but did not immediately elaborate on when and how. Lt Gen Herzi Halevi said that Israel is still considering its steps, but he said that the Iranian strike of missiles and attack drones will be met with a response. Halevi spoke during a visit to the Nevatim air base, which Israel says suffered light damage in the Iranian attack.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been huddling with top officials to discuss a possible response to Iran’s attack involving hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. World leaders have been urging Israel not to retaliate.

The Iranian attack on Saturday marked the first time Iran has launched a direct military assault on Israel, despite decades of enmity dating back to the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. The attack happened less than two weeks after a suspected Israeli strike in Syria that killed two Iranian generals in an Iranian consular building.

The Israeli military says that 99% of the drones and missiles launched by Iran were intercepted, with the help of other countries including the United States, Britain and France. Despite the reported interceptions, Iran has called the attack a success.

In Washington, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby declined to say whether the US had been or expects to be briefed on any Israeli response plans. We will let the Israelis speak to that, he told reporters Monday. We are not involved in their decision-making process about a potential response, Kirby said.

Israel and Iran have been on a collision course throughout Israel’s six-month war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. The war erupted after Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups backed by Iran, carried out a devastating cross-border attack on Oct 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others.

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Israeli officials express optimism over ceasefire talks with Hamas

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Senior Israeli officials said progress has been made in negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza that would include the release of hostages and Palestinian prisoners, a move that drew criticism from far-right ministers who threatened to bring down the government.

Defence minister Yoav Gallant told military recruits that progress in the war has allowed Israel “to make difficult decisions to return the hostages. I think we are at an appropriate point.” A session of the security cabinet, which generally meets on Thursday evening, has been called for Tuesday, Israeli TV channels reported.

“We’ve reached a critical point,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Army Radio on Monday. “If matters work out, a large number of hostages will return home and then, in stages, everyone. But remember that we are dealing with Hamas and there is not a lot of time. I am more optimistic than I was.”

The comments are the most positive in months from top officials on the talks between Israel and Hamas, which have been mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar. Just last week, Israeli officials said large gaps remained between the two sides, with the Iran-backed militant group demanding a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza before any hostages would be freed.

For its part, Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the US and European Union, said on Monday there’d been no progress in the talks. A senior Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, said Israel hasn’t agreed to the group’s demands for a total cease-fire, full withdrawal of troops and free return of the displaced to the north. No new round of talks has been scheduled, the official said.

International Pressure

International pressure has intensified on the Israelis since a missile strike killed seven aid workers delivering food to displaced Palestinians a week ago, with President Joe Biden telling Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that ongoing US support depends on improved steps to protect civilians.

The US again expressed its concerns when Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with Gallant on Monday. The two discussed the “urgent need to dramatically increase humanitarian assistance delivery to Gaza,” and make sure incidents like the deadly strike on aid workers never happen again, the Pentagon said in a statement.

On Sunday, Netanyahu announced a withdrawal of combat troops from the city of Khan Younis after four months of fighting, the first significant scaling back of ground forces since a week-long cease-fire that ended in early December. Some have interpreted the move as a signal to Hamas a deal is on the table.

Israeli assets rallied on Monday, in part because of optimism a truce is nearer. The main stock index gained 1.5% as of 12:30 p.m. in Tel Aviv, while the shekel strengthened 2.2% against the dollar to head for its best daily performance since mid-November.

The scaling back of ground forces — alongside the ministers’ comments — angered Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners who want the war to continue until Hamas is destroyed. They threatened to bring down the government if there’s a permanent cease-fire, or the prime minister decides against an offensive on the Gazan city of Rafah — seen as the last bastion of Hamas and its leaders.

Rafah Invasion

Gallant said the soldiers were being withdrawn from Khan Younis so they could prepare for an eventual invasion of Rafah, and Netanyahu reiterated on Monday an attack would take place to eliminate the remaining Hamas battalions and a date had been set.

Yet the latest rhetoric has still raised the idea that the long-promised assault may not happen, something which is alarming some of the far-right coalition partners Netanyahu relies on to keep his government intact.

“If the prime minister decides to end the war without an extensive attack on Rafah in order to defeat Hamas, he will not have a mandate to continue serving as Prime Minister,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, posted on X.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, from the Religious Zionism party, called on Netanyahu to convene an urgent meeting of the extended cabinet to discuss the developments in the war.

“I have been warning for weeks that instead of taking our foot off the gas we should increase the pressure on Hamas in Gaza, and this is the only way we can return the hostages and destroy Hamas,” he said.

Israeli public broadcaster Kan said Smotrich is sending a message to Netanyahu that his party won’t go along with a permanent cease-fire nor a hostage deal that goes too far.

US Pressure

Israeli officials say US negotiators in Cairo are pressing both Israel and Hamas hard to reach an agreement. The US wants Gaza to receive far more humanitarian aid to combat disease and hunger, alongside a long pause in fighting and the freeing of hostages. From there, the US hopes to extend the truce and start rebuilding the decimated Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu has said that unless Israel defeats Hamas entirely, it will not have won the war. But he’s also under intense domestic pressure to bring back as many as possible of the more than 100 hostages still held in Gaza.

The war started on Oct. 7 when thousands of Hamas operatives broke into Israel from Gaza, killing about 1,200 people and abducting 250. Israel attacked by air, sea and land, and has killed some 33,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

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Israel withdraws some troops from southern Gaza, Egyptian media says truce talks progress in Cairo

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Israel said it has withdrawn some of its troops from southern Gaza, with just one Brigade left.

Meanwhile progress has been made in discussions in Cairo, Egypt and there is a agreement on the basic points between all the involved parties, Egypt’s Al-Qahera News state-affiliated TV channel said early on Monday, citing a senior Egyptian source.

On Sunday, both Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt for fresh talks on a potential ceasefire in the six-month conflict. (nL2N3GG053)

There was no immediate comment from Hamas and none of the parties to the Cairo talks has confirmed the Al-Qahera news report.

According to Al-Qahera, Hamas and Qatar’s delegations left Cairo and will return within two days to agree on the terms of the final agreement, while the Israeli and the U.S. delegations will leave the Egyptian capital within a few hours. It added that consultations were ongoing during the next 48 hours.

Hamas reiterated on Sunday their demands including a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, a return of the displaced, and an exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages being held in Gaza.

The war erupted after Hamas militants broke through the border and rampaged through communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 33,100 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

With inputs from Reuters

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Israel says it will reopen border crossing with hard-hit northern Gaza

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Israel on Friday said it is taking steps to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, including reopening a key border crossing into hard-hit northern Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced the plans, just hours after President Joe Biden told him that future US support for the war in Gaza depends on Israel taking more action to protect civilians and aid workers. The announcement did not elaborate on quantities or types of items to be let in.

Still, despite their differences, the Biden administration has continued to provide Israel crucial military aid and diplomatic support for Israel’s six-month war against Hamas. Israel faces growing international isolation after its forces killed seven aid workers helping deliver food in Gaza. The Palestinian death toll soared above 33,000 people on Thursday, with another 75,600 wounded, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tally, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.

The United Nations says much of the population in northern Gaza is on the brink of starvation. The top United Nations court has concluded there is a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza – a charge Israel strongly denies – and the UN Security Council has issued a legally binding demand for a cease-fire. The war began on Oct 7, when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage.

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Joe Biden tells Benjamin Netanyahu US support hinges on protecting civilians

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that US support for his war in Gaza depends on new steps to protect civilians, a shift in position for the American leader who has faced increased pressure to take a harder line against Israel amid mounting deaths.

The warning, delivered in a Thursday phone call between the two leaders, signaled that Biden is toughening his stance after an Israeli strike that killed seven people delivering food to displaced Palestinians in Gaza. Biden called the incident “unacceptable,” according to a White House description of the conversation.

Hours later, the prime minister’s office announced that the country’s security cabinet had authorized action to bolster assistance and “prevent a humanitarian crisis.”

Israel will allow the temporary delivery of aid to Gaza through the Ashdod and Erez checkpoints in Israel, according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office, which added that more Jordanian aid could flow through a crossing at Kerem Shalom. The decision, according to the statement, would also “ensure the continuation of the fighting and to achieve the goals of the war.”

Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, said “We welcome the steps announced by the Israeli government tonight at the president’s request following his call with Prime Minister Netanyahu.”

The prime minister’s office has not released an account of the Biden-Netanyahu call, which came amid heightened tensions between the two men.

Biden said Israel must “announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers,” the White House said in a statement earlier Thursday. Biden said an “immediate” cease-fire is necessary to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza and urged Netanyahu to secure a deal in long-running, indirect negotiations with Hamas.

“He made clear that US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps,” according to the statement. “President Biden emphasized that the strikes on humanitarian workers and the overall humanitarian situation are unacceptable.”

Biden did not specify when and how he might shift his approach to the Israel-Hamas war, which is in its sixth month and has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths. But his statement is the closest he has come to placing new requirements on US support for Israel’s military operations.

Earlier Thursday, Netanyahu vowed to press on with its war effort.

White House spokesman John Kirby declined to elaborate on what steps the US would take if Israel does not do more to protect civilians, including if Biden would withhold military assistance.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed during a press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels that “if we don’t see the changes we need to see, there’ll be changes in our policy.” He did not detail the nature of those potential changes.

The US for weeks has urged Netanyahu to curb civilian deaths and has objected to a plan to invade the southern enclave of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians fled during Israel’s war with Hamas.

This week’s air strike on a convoy of workers from World Central Kitchen, a disaster relief group founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, signaled a breaking point for the White House.

Kirby said Thursday’s call, which he said lasted around 30 minutes and described as “direct” and “businesslike,” was scheduled in response to the bombing. Biden was “shaken by the attack” that killed the aid workers and “felt strongly” it was time to talk to Netanyahu, the spokesman said. It was their first call since mid-March.

Israel has said the strike inadvertently hit the aid workers and is conducting an investigation to determine how the strike occurred. Kirby said that probe is “close to complete.”

The president is facing mounting political pressure from progressives, as well as Arab- and Muslim-Americans, who object to his support for Israel’s war effort. The aid-worker attack prompted Democrats to issue fresh calls for placing conditions on American military backing for Israel.

Israel’s conduct of its war against Hamas, designated a terrorist group by the US and European Union, has also drawn criticism from Republican Donald Trump, who vocally supported Netanyahu during his presidency.

Trump in a Thursday interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt said Israel had to finish the war quickly and that it is “losing the PR war,” while declining to answer whether he still remains 100% behind Israel.

“You’ve got to get it over with, and you have to get back to normalcy. And I’m not sure that I’m loving the way they’re doing it, because you’ve got to have victory,” he said. “They shouldn’t be releasing tapes like that. They’re doing, that’s why they’re losing the PR war.”

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Palestinians want April vote on UN membership despite US saying peace with Israel must come first

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Palestinians want the Security Council to vote later this month on their revived request for full membership in the United Nations, despite the United States reiterating Wednesday that Israel and the Palestinians must first negotiate a peace agreement.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, said 140 countries recognise the state of Palestine, and “we believe it is high time now for our state to become a full member at the United Nations.”

The Palestinians are making a fresh bid for U.N. membership as the war between Israel and Hamas that began Oct. 7 nears its sixth month, putting the unresolved decades-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the spotlight after years on the back burner.

During the Cold War between the former Soviet Union and the United States, Mansour said, countries were blocked from joining the U.N., but they all eventually became members, including North Korea. The U.S. doesn’t recognize North Korea but didn’t block its admission, he said, and asked why conditions should be placed on Palestinian membership.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivered the Palestinian Authority’s application to become the 194th member of the United Nations to then Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sept. 23, 2011, before addressing world leaders at the General Assembly.

That bid failed because the Palestinians failed to get the required support of nine of the Security Council’s 15 members. Even if they did, the United States, Israel’s closest ally, had promised at that time to veto any council resolution endorsing Palestinian membership, saying this should follow a negotiated peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Palestinians then went to the 193-member General Assembly, where there are no vetoes, and by more than a two-thirds majority succeeded in having their status raised from a U.N. observer to a non-member observer state in November 2012.

Mansour asked the Security Council on Tuesday to consider during April the Palestinians’ renewed application for membership, which was supported by the 22-nation Arab Group at the United Nations, the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the 120-member Nonaligned Movement.

He told several journalists Wednesday that he expects the council’s Standing Committee on New Members, which includes all 15 council nations, to meet behind closed doors to consider the application before the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on April 9.

Mansour said he then expects the Security Council to vote on the Palestinian request for full U.N. membership at its monthly meeting on the Middle East, being held at ministerial level April 18.

Seven of the council’s 15 members recognize the state of Palestine — China, Russia, Ecuador, Mozambique, Algeria, Guyana and Sierra Leone.

U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller was asked Wednesday whether the United States would veto full membership for Palestinians. “I am not going to speculate about what may happen down the road,” he replied.

He said intensive diplomacy has taken place over the past few months to establish a Palestinian state with security guarantees for Israel, which the United States supports. But Miller said that should be done through direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, “something we are pursuing at this time, and not at the United Nations.”

U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood pointed to another obstacle: The U.S. Congress has adopted legislation “that in essence says that if the Security Council approves full membership for the Palestinians outside of a bilateral agreement between Israel and the Palestinians … (U.S.) funding would be cut off to the U.N. system.”

“We’re bound by U.S. laws,” he told several reporters Wednesday. “So our hope is that they don’t pursue that, but that’s up to them.”

Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador, said it is the Palestinians’ “natural and legal right” to seek full U.N. membership and declared, “Let the process unfold.”

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Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh resigns amid Gaza conflict

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said on Monday he was resigning to allow for the formation of a broad consensus among Palestinians about political arrangements following Israel’s war against the Islamist group Hamas in Gaza.

The move comes amid growing U.S. pressure on President Mahmoud Abbas to shake up the Palestinian Authority as international efforts have intensified to stop the fighting in Gaza and begin work on a political structure to govern the enclave after the war.

His resignation must still be accepted by Abbas, who may ask him to stay on as caretaker until a permanent replacement is appointed.

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In a statement to cabinet, Shtayyeh, an academic economist who took office in 2019, said the next stage would need to take account of the emerging reality in Gaza, which has been laid waste by nearly five months of heavy fighting.

He said the next stage would “require new governmental and political arrangements that take into account the emerging reality in the Gaza Strip, the national unity talks, and the urgent need for an inter-Palestinian consensus”.

In addition, it would require “the extension of the Authority’s authority over the entire land, Palestine”.

The Palestinian Authority, formed 30 years ago under the interim Oslo peace accords, exercises limited governance over parts of the occupied West Bank but lost power in Gaza following a struggle with Hamas in 2007.

Fatah, the faction that controls the PA, and Hamas have made efforts to reach an agreement over a unity government and are due to meet in Moscow on Wednesday. A senior Hamas official said the move had to be followed by a broader agreement on governance for the Palestinians.

“The resignation of Shtayyeh’s government only makes sense if it comes within the context of national consensus on arrangements for the next phase,” senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and says that for security reasons, it will not accept Palestinian Authority rule over Gaza after the war, which broke out following a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, which killed some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners, according to Israeli tallies.

So far, almost 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza fighting, according to Palestinian health authorities, and almost the entire population has been driven from their homes.

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Israeli forces bomb Gaza border city of Rafah amid ceasefire talks

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Israeli forces bombed areas in the southern border city of Rafah where more than half of Gaza’s population is sheltering on Thursday, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a proposal to end the war in the Palestinian enclave.

Netanyahu said on Wednesday terms proposed by Hamas for a ceasefire that would also involve releasing hostages held by the Palestinian militant group were “delusional” and vowed to fight on, saying victory was in reach and just months away.

The rejection followed intense diplomacy to end the four-and-a-half-month conflict before a threatened Israeli assault on Rafah, which is now home to over a million people, many of them in makeshift tents and lacking food and medicine.

Aid agencies have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe if Israel follows through on its threat to enter one of the last remaining areas of the Gaza Strip that its troops have not moved into during its ground offensive.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that pushing into Rafah on the border with Egypt would “increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences.”

Israel says it takes steps to avoid civilian casualties and accuses Hamas militants of hiding among civilians, including at school shelters and hospitals, leading to more civilian deaths. Hamas has denied this.

Israeli planes bombed areas in Rafah on Thursday morning, residents said, killing at least 11 people in strikes on two houses. Tanks also shelled some areas in eastern Rafah, intensifying the residents’ fears of an imminent ground assault.

“We have our backs to the (border) fence and faces toward the Mediterranean. Where should we go?” said Emad, 55, a displaced person who is a father of six.

“There is no place to go. One million people and more than one million are asking this question today; where shall we go?” Emad told Reuters via a chat app.

Blinken in the Middle East

Despite Israel’s rejection of the Hamas proposal, more talks are planned and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on his fifth trip to the region since the start of the war, said he saw room for further negotiation.

In a late-night press conference in a Tel Aviv hotel on Wednesday, Blinken said elements of the proposal put forward by Hamas had contained clear “non-starters”, without saying what they were.

“But we also see space in what came back to pursue negotiations, to see if we can get to an agreement. That’s what we intend to do,” he said.

A Hamas delegation led by senior official Khalil Al-Hayya arrived in Cairo on Thursday for ceasefire talks with Egypt and Qatar, the mediators in the latest diplomatic push.

Hamas, which governs Gaza, proposed a ceasefire of 4-1/2 months, during which all hostages held in Gaza would go free, Israel would withdraw its troops from Gaza and an agreement would be reached on an end to the war.

The Hamas offer was a response to a proposal drawn up by US and Israeli spy chiefs and delivered to Hamas last week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

Israel would be willing to let Hamas military leader Yahya Sinwar go into exile in exchange for the release of all hostages and an end to the Hamas government in Gaza, a half-dozen Israeli officials and senior advisers told NBC News.

Israel began its military offensive after Hamas militants from Gaza killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages in southern Israel on October 7, according to Israeli tallies.

Israeli’s military said on Thursday that over the past day its troops had killed more than 20 Palestinian militants in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis, the site of some of the most intense fighting in the war so far.

It said it had apprehended dozens of militants suspected of involvement in the October attack on Israel.

Gaza’s health ministry says at least 27,585 Palestinians have been confirmed killed, with thousands more feared buried under rubble in Israel’s offensive.

Palestinian journalist killed

The Israeli bombardment continued in Khan Younis and Deir-Al-Balah in central Gaza overnight, killing a Palestinian television journalist, Nafez Abdel-Jawwad, and his son.

In the only truce to date, lasting a week at the end of November, 110 hostages were released and Israel freed 240 Palestinian prisoners.

Netanyahu, whose domestic popularity has sunk, faces public pressure to continue working with international mediators towards an agreement in Gaza, a densely populated coastal enclave of about 2.3 million people.

Blinken was scheduled on Thursday to meet senior Israeli officials on Thursday and family members of hostages still held in Gaza.

Washington has cast the hostage and truce deal as part of plans for a wider resolution of conflict in the Middle East, ultimately leading to reconciliation between Israel and Arab neighbours and the creation of a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu rejects a Palestinian state, which Saudi Arabia says is a requirement for the kingdom to normalise relations with Israel.

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100 days of Israel-Hamas conflict: All you need to know

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Israeli tanks and aircraft hit targets in southern and central Gaza and there were intense gunfights in certain areas on what was the 100th day since the October 7 attack by the gunmen affiliated with Hamas.

In October last year, heavily armed Hamas militants stormed through the Gaza border and launched a surprise attack on southern Israel at several locations, targeting military bases, border towns and kibbutzim. At least 1,200 people were killed in the attacks as the Israeli defences were caught completely by surprise.

Over 360 people were killed at the Nova festival site near the Israel-Gaza border, while dozens of people, including foreigners, were abducted by Hamas.

In retaliation, Israel launched an extensive aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip, followed by a large-scale ground invasion. According to the Gaza health ministry, around 24,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks, many of them women and children.

Also read: Israel-Hamas conflict: A look at their long troubled history as war continues for over 100 days

In Israel, commemorations to mark 100 days since the start of the conflict were held at several places on Sunday (January 14), as locals united to call for the release of all hostages held in Gaza.

According to Reuters, over 130 hostages are still held captive in Gaza.

“100 days of Hell” — a 24-hour-long rally — was held on Sunday. Led by families of hostages, the rally saw participation from thousands of people at the Tel Aviv central square, now named ‘Hostages Plaza’.

Israel’s labour union federation announced a 100-minute long pause in civil and commercial activity in solidarity with the hostages in Gaza. Several shops in Jerusalem Mall paused their businesses for 100 minutes to show solidarity with the hostages and their respective families.

A rally demanding the release of hostages took place outside the city hall in Jerusalem. To mark the day, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem released 100 yellow balloons.

Meanwhile, communications and internet services remained down in major areas of the Gaza Strip, making it difficult for the officials to carry out emergency services.

On Sunday, fighting was concentrated in the southern city of Khan Younis and Al-Bureij and Al Maghazi in central Gaza.

The health ministry in Gaza informed that 125 people were killed and 265 wounded in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of confirmed deaths since the start of the war to almost 24,000, with over 60,000 injured.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, while speaking through a video link to a conference in Istanbul, praised the October 7 attacks and said, “We are not seekers of wars. We are seekers of freedom”.

He claimed that the attacks were a response to the years-long Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.

On the other hand, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has brushed off calls for a ceasefire in the region and said the Israeli military will continue until it achieves complete victory over Hamas.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow