Keystone-SDA
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June 12, 2024 – 00:20
(Keystone-ATS) The war knows no respite between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip., while Washington defends a ceasefire plan on Tuesday during a conference in Jordan on humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, under the bombs for more than eight months.
American Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on tour in the Middle East, stressed in Israel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “reaffirmed his commitment” to a ceasefire plan announced on May 31 by the president Joe Biden and adopted Monday by the UN Security Council.
Mr. Blinken also described as an “encouraging sign” the reaction of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which said it welcomed “favorably” a certain number of elements of the American resolution.
The response of Hamas and Islamic Jihad to the ceasefire plan calls for a “total cessation of aggression” in the Gaza Strip, the two Palestinian movements announced on Tuesday. “The response prioritizes the interests of the Palestinian people and emphasizes the need for a complete halt to the ongoing aggression in Gaza,” Hamas and Islamic Jihad said in a joint statement, adding that they were ready to “engage in a positive way to reach an agreement that puts an end to this war.”
“The response contains amendments to the Israeli proposal, including a timetable for a permanent ceasefire and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip,” a Source said on condition of anonymity, adding that the discussions would continue through the Qatari and Egyptian mediators, in coordination with the United States. In the evening, Hamas officials affirmed that the movement had given its official response, without specifying its substance.
After Israel, the Secretary of State went to Jordan for an international conference aimed at mobilizing funds for humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, a besieged territory deprived of water and electricity, where the UN is worried about the risk of famine.
“The horror must end” (Guterres)
On Tuesday, deadly Israeli strikes targeted in particular the center of the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army said it had “completed an operation” in eastern Deir al-Balah and eastern al-Boureij. In the West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reports six deaths in an Israeli army raid.
The army also announced on Tuesday the death of four soldiers killed in fighting the day before in the south, bringing to 298 the number of Israeli soldiers killed since the start of the ground offensive in the Gaza Strip on October 27.
“The horror must end,” said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who was participating in the conference on aid for Gaza in Jordan. “It is high time to establish a ceasefire and release the hostages unconditionally,” he added, calling on “all parties to seize the opportunity” provided by the new road map.
Psychological impact
In Jordan, the UN secretary-general said at least 1.7 million people of the Gaza Strip’s approximately 2.4 million inhabitants have been repeatedly displaced by Israeli military operations.
More than a million Palestinians in Gaza do not have enough drinking water, he added, also deploring the psychological impact of the war, particularly on children, of whom there are more than 50,000. need treatment for acute malnutrition.
“Approximately 60% of residential buildings and at least 80% of commercial facilities were damaged by Israeli bombings,” he added, deploring the destruction of health centers and schools.
On May 7, the army launched a ground offensive on the town of Rafah, in the south of the besieged Palestinian territory, which led to the closure of the border crossing with Egypt, crucial for the entry of humanitarian aid , now controlled by Israel.
And “for more than 700,000 people besieged in the northern sector, the number of (aid) trucks per day does not exceed 35, even though it is their only Source of food and medicine,” lamented Tuesday the Hamas media office.
Also in the north, 50 Palestinians detained by Israel were released by the army and transferred to Kamal Adwan hospital in Jabalia, according to a medical Source at the establishment.
“War crimes”
On the diplomatic level, the UN Security Council adopted on Monday by 14 votes and one abstention, that of Russia, the American resolution supporting the plan which aims to establish in stages a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
This plan provides, in a first phase, a six-week ceasefire accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas of Gaza, the release of certain hostages and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
So Hamas gave its response to the American plan on Tuesday evening. Israel refuses to end the war until the Palestinian movement, in power in Gaza since 2007 and which it considers to be a terrorist organization, is eliminated. the United States and the European Union.
The road map was presented by Joe Biden as coming from Israel, which has so far not formally accepted it.
For his part, Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to take advantage of a special forces operation which made it possible to free four hostages on Saturday in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli media, during which 274 Palestinians were killed, according to the Ministry of Security. Health of Hamas.
The UN High Commission said it was both “deeply shocked” by the impact on civilians of this operation and “deeply distressed” by the fact that hostages are still being held.
For Jeremy Laurence, its spokesperson, “all these actions, by both parties, could amount to war crimes”.
Tens of thousands dead
The war in the Gaza Strip was triggered on October 7 by an unprecedented attack by Hamas in southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count established in from official Israeli data.
Some 251 people were kidnapped during this attack and 116 are still held in Gaza, of whom 41 died, according to the Israeli army.
In response, the Israeli army launched an offensive on the Palestinian territory which left at least 37,164 dead, including 40 in 24 hours, mostly civilians, according to data from the Ministry of Health of the Gaza government led by Hamas.
