US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar on Tuesday, pushing forward the latest diplomatic mission to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, while… Hamas and Israel signal that challenges remain,
The militant Hamas group described the latest proposal presented to it as a “reversal” from the one it had agreed to, and in a statement accused the United States of accepting Israel’s “new conditions”. There was no immediate US comment.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with right-wing groups representing families of fallen soldiers and hostages in Gaza. Groups opposed to the ceasefire deal said Mr Netanyahu told them Israel would not give up two strategic corridors in Gaza, whose control by Israel is hindering the talks. Mr Netanyahu’s office did not comment on his statement.
A senior US official dismissed as “completely false” Mr Netanyahu’s reported comments that he had told Mr Blinken that Israel would never leave the Philadelphia and Netzarim corridors. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss Mr Blinken’s private diplomatic talks.
Mr Netanyahu’s meeting with the families came as the Israeli military said it had recovered the bodies of six hostages taken in Hamas’s October 7 attack that triggered the war. It has unleashed a new wave of grief for many Israelis who have long been pressing Mr Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire that would allow the remaining hostages to be released. There were new protests on Tuesday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) meets Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelati in El-Alamein, Egypt. | Photo credit: AP
Mr. Blinken’s meetings in Egypt, which borders Gaza, and in Qatar, which hosts some exiled Hamas leaders, come a day after he met Met Mr Netanyahu and said the Prime Minister has accepted the US offer. To bridge the gap between Israel and Hamas, Mr. Blinken called on Hamas to do the same. Officials did not release details of the bridge proposal.
But there appear to be wide differences between the two sides, although angry statements often serve as a pressure tactic during talks.
The urgency of signing the agreement has increased further after recent targeted killings of Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist leaders in Iran and Lebanon, for which Israel has been blamed, and vows of retaliation, have raised fears of a wider regional war.
The Israeli military said its forces had recovered six bodies of hostages in an overnight operation in southern Gaza, saying they were killed when the army was conducting an operation in Khan Younis. Hamas says some of the hostages were killed in Israeli air strikes, though returned hostages have spoken of difficult conditions in captivity, 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. Family members of Metzger, Munder, Popplewell and Buchshtaev were also hostages who were freed during a ceasefire in November.
Mundar’s death was confirmed by the farming community of Kibbutz Nir Oz, where he was one of about 80 residents who were detained. It said he died after “months of physical and mental torture.” Israeli authorities had previously determined that the other five men were dead. There were no reports of casualties among Israelis or Palestinians in the recovery operation.
Hamas is believed to still be holding about 110 hostages captured on October 7. Israeli officials estimate that about a third of them are dead.
Hamas-led militants breached Israeli security forces on Oct. 7 and rampaged across the south, killing nearly 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking about 250 hostage. More than 100 were released during last year’s ceasefire in exchange for Palestinians held in Israel.
More than 40,000 Palestinians were killed in Israeli retaliatory attacksThat’s according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. Air and ground attacks have 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 diseases such as polio.
At least 12 people who had taken shelter in the school were killed in Israeli air strikes on Tuesday. In Gaza City, the Palestinian Civil Defense, a first responder working under the Hamas-run government, said about 700 people were sheltering in the Mustafa Hafez school. Israel’s 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 Umm Khalil Abu Agwa, a displaced woman there.
An Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah killed people walking on the street and killed seven people, including a woman and two children, according to an Associated Press journalist who conducted a body count. More than 20 people were wounded. Another airstrike in central Gaza killed five children and their mother, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where an AP journalist conducted a body count.
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.