A meeting is to be held on Monday in Cairo between representatives of Egypt and Qatar, two of the mediator countries with the United States, and Hamas, which must give its response to this proposal negotiated between Israel and Egypt, after months of fruitless discussions.
At the same time, Antony Blinken stopped in Saudi Arabia before heading to Israel on Tuesday, as part of a new tour of the Middle East intended to promote a truce in the Palestinian territory, besieged and plunged into a major humanitarian crisis.
The head of American diplomacy expressed the hope of seeing Hamas accept a truce proposal which he described as “extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel”. “They have to make a decision, and they have to do it quickly (…) I hope they make the right decision,” he added.
Antony Blinken also reiterated his country’s opposition to an Israeli offensive on the overcrowded town of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, which has become a huge refugee camp housing nearly a million and a half Palestinians in poor conditions. catastrophic health conditions.
According to doctors and Civil Defense, Israeli strikes on several houses left 22 dead overnight in this city, which is bombarded daily.
– Heat and mosquitoes –
After having endured the cold of winter, the displaced families are now suffering the heat which rises at the end of April, without running water, barely protected from the sun under the canvases of the tents.
“The water we drink is hot,” Ranine Aouni al-Arian, a mother displaced from the neighboring town of Khan Younes, told AFP.
“Children can no longer stand the heat and the bites of flies and mosquitoes,” she explains. Her baby, whom she is holding in her arms, has a face covered in bites, and she is struggling to find “a treatment or a solution” for her children.
Despite the disapproval of many capitals and humanitarian organizations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says an offensive on Rafah is necessary to free the hostages held in Gaza since the start of the war on October 7 and defeat Hamas, which has According to Israel, grouped four battalions in this border town with Egypt.
“We have not yet seen a plan that allows us to believe that civilians can be effectively protected,” Mr. Blinken told a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Riyadh.
– “Permanent ceasefire” –
Egypt said it was “hopeful” in a truce, saying the proposal on the table “attempted to show moderation”.
“It is too early to speak of a positive atmosphere in the negotiations,” Zaher Jabareen, a member of the Hamas political bureau and the negotiating team, told AFP.
“The movement has received the Israeli response and is in a phase of consultations to respond to it,” he added, reiterating the demands of the Islamist movement, starting with a permanent ceasefire in the strip. of Gaza, a hypothesis that Israel has always refused to consider.
“The possibility of success or failure will be determined by the ability to reach a decision on a permanent ceasefire, an (Israeli) withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the return of the displaced, a clear timetable for the start of reconstruction and an exchange agreement that removes all injustice towards Palestinian detainees, men and women,” he said.
According to media reports, the Israeli war cabinet initially demanded the release of 40 hostages held in Gaza since the start of the war on October 7, before authorizing negotiators to lower this number.
The American news site Axios indicated that Israel was demanding the release, on humanitarian grounds, of women, civilians or soldiers, and men over 50 or in poor health.
According to Axios, Hamas claims that only 20 hostages meet these criteria. The site adds that the number of days of truce would be equal to that of the hostages released.
The war was launched on October 7 when Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza carried out an unprecedented attack in southern Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,170 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP report established from official Israeli data.
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, in power in Gaza since 2007, which it considers a terrorist organization, along with the United States and the European Union. Its offensive in Gaza left 34,488 dead, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, which counted 34 dead in 24 hours on Monday.
In addition to Rafah, bombings targeted the center of the Gaza Strip as well as Gaza City in the north on Monday.
Sunday in Riyadh, the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, also called on Washington to prevent Israel from launching an offensive against Rafah. “America is the only country capable of stopping Israel from committing this crime,” he said.
“If there is an agreement (truce), we will suspend the operation in Rafah,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Israeli channel N12 on Saturday.
“If there is a possibility of reaching an agreement, we will do it,” he added.
