The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken said this Wednesday in Tel Aviv that he was determined to obtain “now” a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas associated with the release of hostages, in the seventh month of a devastating war in the Gaza Strip. While Hamas has not yet given its response to a proposal providing for a cessation of hostilities for 40 days, Antony Blinken should also try to press Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to abandon an announced ground offensive against Rafah, in the south of the Palestinian territory of Gaza.
According to an Israeli official, Israel will wait until “Wednesday evening” for a response from Hamas before deciding whether or not it will send a delegation to Cairo with a view to a possible agreement. After a meeting Monday in Cairo with the Egyptian and Qatari mediators, a Hamas delegation returned to Doha and should give its response “as quickly as possible”, according to a Source close to the Palestinian Islamist movement.
Offensive in Rafah?
“Even in these difficult times, we are determined to secure a ceasefire bringing the hostages home and to achieve it now. And the only reason why it wouldn’t happen is Hamas,” Antony Blinken said during a meeting in Tel Aviv with President Isaac Herzog. The latest proposal, which provides for an exchange of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners, follows months of blockage in indirect negotiations despite the heavy human toll of the war and a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza on the brink of famine according to the UN. At the end of November, a one-week truce allowed the release of 105 hostages, including 80 Israelis and dual nationals exchanged for 240 Palestinians detained by Israel.
Antony Blinken, for whom the new proposal is “extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel”, pressed Hamas on Tuesday to accept it “without further delay”. Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007 and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, is primarily demanding a “permanent” ceasefire before any agreement, which Israel refuses. And Benjamin Netanyahu repeated on Tuesday that he was determined to carry out a ground offensive in Rafah, a city considered to be the last bastion of Hamas and where around 1.5 million Palestinians are crowded, the vast majority displaced by the war.
“The idea of stopping the war before having achieved all our objectives is out of the question. We will enter Rafah and eliminate the Hamas battalions there, with or without (a truce) agreement in order to achieve total victory,” he said. Benjamin Netanyahu is due to meet at 10:45 a.m. local time in Jerusalem with Antony Blinken, whose country is hostile to a ground operation in Rafah due to fears for the civilian population. The head of French diplomacy, Stéphane Séjourné, who pleaded for a ceasefire during his meeting on Tuesday with Benyamin Netanyahu, is expected in Cairo on Wednesday, according to the Egyptian authorities.
“A tragedy without a name”
“The truth is that a ground operation in Rafah would simply be an unspeakable tragedy. No humanitarian plan can counter this,” UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths warned on Tuesday. The war was sparked by an unprecedented attack on October 7 by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza into southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to a toll based on official data. Israelis.
More than 250 people have been kidnapped and 129 remain captive in Gaza, 34 of whom have died according to Israeli officials. In retaliation, Israel vowed to annihilate Hamas and launched a large-scale offensive – air then land – which has so far left 34,535 dead, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health. And the Israeli air force continues to bomb the Gaza Strip, causing dozens of deaths daily according to the same ministry.
“Much remains to be done”
The war has caused a “humanitarian hell” in the small Palestinian territory besieged by Israel since October 9, according to UN chief Antonio Guterres. After the cold of winter, displaced families in Rafah are now suffering from the rising heat, and find themselves threatened, without running water, by the spread of disease and famine. International aid, strictly controlled by the Israeli authorities, arrives in trickles mainly from Egypt via Rafah, but remains very insufficient given the immense needs of the 2.4 million Gazans.
