AA / Jerusalem / Abdelraouf Arnaout
The leader of the Israeli National Unity Party, Benny Gantz, informed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday that his party supports the ceasefire proposal in Gaza presented by US President Joe Biden.
According to a statement from Gantz’s office, he asked Blinken to exert “maximum pressure” on negotiators to reach an agreement on the release of the prisoners.
At a meeting in Tel Aviv, Gantz told Blinken that even though he had left the government, he would “support any responsible arrangement on the issue.” »
He also said that if the threat from Hezbollah in northern Israel is not eliminated, “Israel will not hesitate to act forcefully” against the Lebanese group.
Gantz, a member of the war cabinet, left the emergency government on Sunday, accusing Netanyahu of pursuing a course of action that serves his political interests. He also called for early elections “as soon as possible”.
Blinken arrived in Israel on Monday, the second stop on his eighth tour of the Middle East since the start of the Israeli war against Gaza on October 7, 2023.
The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on Monday supporting the proposed ceasefire in Gaza announced by US President Joe Biden, with 14 votes in favor and Russia abstention.
Israel faces international condemnation for continuing its brutal offensive against the Gaza Strip since October 7, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire .
According to local health authorities, more than 37,100 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children, have been killed since then in Gaza and nearly 84,700 others have been injured.
Eight months after the start of the Israeli war, large swathes of the Gaza Strip have been reduced to rubble and subjected to a crippling blockade that deprives residents of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is being prosecuted for the “crime of genocide” before the International Court of Justice, whose latest order ordered Tel Aviv to immediately cease its operations in the town of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, where more than a million Palestinians had taken refuge before the city was invaded on May 6.
*Translated from English by Mourad Belhaj
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