US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended his ninth visit to the Middle East since the war in Gaza began without achieving any major breakthrough for a cease-fire deal, warning on Tuesday (August 20, 2024) that “timing is critical” while Hamas and Israel indicated challenges remain.
Following meetings in fellow mediator countries Egypt and Qatar, Mr. Blinken said that since Israel has accepted the proposal to bridge differences with the terrorist group, the focus is on doing everything possible to “bring Hamas along” and ensure that the two sides agree on key details of implementation.
“Our message is simple. It is clear and it is urgent,” he told reporters before departing Qatar. “We need to finalise the ceasefire and hostage agreement, and we need to do it now. There is no time constraint.”
This has become even more urgent following the recent targeted killings of Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist leaders in Iran and Lebanon, both of which have been blamed on Israel and vows of retaliation, raising fears of a wider regional war.
Very few details have been released about the so-called bridging proposal put forward by the US, Egypt and Qatar. Mr Blinken said it is “very clear about the schedule and locations of the (Israeli troop) withdrawal from Gaza.”
Earlier on Tuesday (August 20, 2024), Hamas described this latest proposal as contrary to the proposal it had agreed to, and accused the US of accepting Israel’s new conditions. There was no immediate reaction from the US to this.
Mr. Blinken’s remarks wrapping up his latest Israel-Hamas peace mission were a stark contrast to the optimism expressed by Biden administration officials before and after his trip.
The upbeat mood during the spring and summer — in which U.S. officials at times described a ceasefire and hostage agreement as closer than ever — at least partly reflected the necessary messaging, said Jonathan Panikoff, director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Middle East program.
“If they don’t show optimism, it’s not likely to create … enough momentum to keep things going,” Mr. Panikoff said.
“The Americans have no choice but to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a negotiated end to the fighting, but that is fundamentally about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who helped plot the October 7, 2023 attacks,” Mr. Panikoff said, and they are “the two people who have been the most skeptical from the beginning about making peace”.
Meanwhile, Mr Netanyahu met with right-wing groups representing families of fallen soldiers and hostages in Gaza. Groups opposed to the ceasefire deal said he told them Israel would not give up two strategic corridors into Gaza whose control is hindering the talks. Netanyahu’s office did not comment on his statement.
A senior U.S. official dismissed as “completely false” reports that Mr. Netanyahu had told Mr. Blinken that Israel would never give up the Philadelphia and Netzarim corridors. Such statements “are not constructive to finalizing a ceasefire agreement,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss Mr. Blinken’s private diplomatic talks.
Mr. Blinken’s visit came a day after he met Mr. Netanyahu in Egypt, which borders Gaza, and in Qatar, where some Hamas leaders are in exile. There appears to be a huge gulf between Israel and Hamas, although angry statements often serve as a pressure tactic during talks.
“Both men have seen their political standing improve at home, as Israel has shifted its focus from the war in Gaza to the threat of a broader conflict with Iran and Hezbollah, and Hamas has further solidified Sinwar’s leadership in the group. This has reduced the pressure to make a deal,” Mr. Panikoff said.
And while the United States could try to ban arms sales to Israel to force it to end its war with Hamas, Mr. Panikoff argued that this would risk making Mr. Netanyahu even more stubborn in his actions.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s meeting with the families comes as the Israeli military says it has recovered the bodies of six hostages taken in Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, which triggered the war. The incident has brought a new wave of grief to many Israelis who have long been pressuring Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire so that the remaining hostages could be brought back.
New protests took place on Tuesday (August 20, 2024). “The longer they stay there, the more bodies we will find,” said Adi Israeli, a protester in Tel Aviv.
The Israeli military said it had recovered six bodies in an overnight operation in southern Gaza, saying they were killed during an army operation in Khan Younis. Hamas says some hostages have been killed in Israeli air strikes, though returned hostages have spoken of difficult conditions including a lack of food or medicine.
The recovery of the remains is also a blow to Hamas, which is hoping for a hostage swap for Palestinian prisoners, an Israeli withdrawal and a permanent ceasefire.
The army said it had identified the remains of Chaim Peri (80), Yoram Metzger (80), Avraham Munder (79), Alexander Dansig (76), Nadav Popplewell (51) and Yagaev Buchshtaev (35).
Kibbutz Nir Oz, the farming community where about 80 residents, including Mr. Mundar, were held hostage, said he died after “several months of physical and mental torture.” Israeli authorities had previously determined that the other five men were dead.
Hamas is believed to still be holding 110 hostages captured during the October 7 attacks, in which the militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians. Israeli officials estimate that a third of them have been killed. More than 100 hostages were released during last year’s ceasefire in exchange for Palestinians held in Israel.
More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli retaliatory strikes, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The war has caused widespread destruction and forced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents to flee their homes, often multiple times. Aid groups fear the spread of polio and other diseases.
At least 12 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school in Gaza City on Tuesday. The Palestinian Civil Defense, a first responder working under the Hamas-run government, said about 700 people were sheltering in the Mustafa Hafez school. The Israeli military said the attack targeted Hamas militants who had set up a command center there.
“We don’t know where to go … or where to shelter our children,” said displaced woman Umm Khalil Abu Agwa.
An Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah hit people walking on the street and killed seven people, including a woman and two children, according to an Associated Press journalist counting the bodies. Another airstrike in central Gaza killed five children and their mother, according to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where an AP reporter counted the bodies.
Palestinians displaced by recent Israeli evacuation orders gathered in already overcrowded areas. A child in Deir al-Balah slept on cardboard with insects flying into his face.
“Will they dig up the ground and throw us there or put us on a boat and throw us into the sea? I don’t know,” said a man called Abu Shady Afana.