Israel’s prime minister, facing domestic and foreign pressure to reach a ceasefire deal with Hamas, on Sunday accused Hamas activists of being intransigent in Gaza ceasefire talks, while top US diplomat Antony Blinken arrived in Israel.
Making his ninth visit to the Middle East since the Gaza war began after Hamas attacked Israel in October, the US Secretary of State will meet Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders in a renewed effort to sign a deal that could help avert a wider conflict.
Blinken will travel to Cairo on Tuesday, where ceasefire talks will resume in the coming days.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Sunday that pressure must be put on the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
“Hamas has so far taken a stubborn stance. It did not even send its representative for the talks in Doha. Therefore, the pressure should be on Hamas and (Yahya) Sinwar, not on the Israeli government,” Netanyahu said in a cabinet meeting, referring to the Hamas chief.
Western ally Jordan, hostage supporters protesting in Israel and Hamas itself have called for pressure on Netanyahu to reach a deal.
Far-right members crucial to his governing coalition are opposed to any ceasefire.
Ahead of Blinken’s visit, the foreign ministers of Britain and France were also in Israel on Friday to stress the urgency of the Gaza agreement.
In late May, US President Joe Biden laid out a framework he said was similar to that proposed by Israel. The UN Security Council later backed the resolution, which would see fighting halted for an initial six weeks while Israeli hostages are exchanged for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails and humanitarian aid is allowed to reach the besieged Gaza Strip.
Ahead of ceasefire talks in Doha last Thursday and Friday, Hamas called on mediators to implement the Biden framework rather than engage in further negotiations.
Hamas also opposed Israel’s “new conditions”.
On Saturday, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that Israeli negotiators had expressed “cautious optimism” about reaching a Gaza ceasefire agreement.
U.S., Qatari and Egyptian mediators have also reported progress, with one U.S. official saying remaining differences were considered “bridgeable.”
But while Biden said “we are closer than ever to a deal,” Sami Abu Zuhri, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, dismissed such optimism as “illusion.”
During months of ceasefire talks it was announced that an agreement had been reached, but this declaration proved to be baseless.
But threats have increased following a series of assassinations of Iran-backed militant leaders, including Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in late July, and a deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza with fears of a polio outbreak.
Samah Diab, 32, said Israeli evacuation orders had “shrunk the safe zone” in the south of the territory, leaving “no room” for displaced Palestinians.
Dib said some people are “sleeping in the streets” while clean water is scarce and “there is food in the markets, but it’s very expensive and we have no money left.” Dib, like nearly all Gazans, is among the displaced.
Violence also persisted in Gaza even as efforts to reach a long-standing ceasefire agreement failed, as did the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Lebanon, where Israeli forces and Hamas’s Iran-backed ally Hezbollah exchanged fire almost daily during a war of words. They did so again on Sunday.
The rumble of tanks
Civil defence rescue workers in Hamas-run Gaza said seven people were killed in Israeli bombing of Deir al-Balah and four others were killed in air strikes on the northern Jabalia refugee camp.
The latest killings bring the Gaza Health Ministry’s war death toll to 40,099.
According to Israeli official figures, the war began as a result of an attack by Hamas on Israel on 7 October that killed 1,198 people, mostly civilians.
The Israeli military said troops continued operations in central and southern Gaza and had “eliminated” militants in Rafah, on the Egyptian border.
From the Israeli-designated safe zone in al-Mawasi in southern Gaza, Lina Saleha, 44, said she could hear “constant artillery fire” and the rumble of tanks “getting closer.”
“This is not a good sign and we are scared and fearful,” he said.
In the West Bank, Israel said late Saturday it had killed “two senior Hamas officials” in Jenin. Hamas’ armed wing confirmed the deaths of the two militants.
In Lebanon, the United Nations said three peacekeepers were lightly injured in an explosion in the south of the country.
Call for ‘pressure’
Iran and its regional allies have vowed to retaliate for Haniyeh’s killing in Tehran – for which Israel has not claimed responsibility – and the killing of a top Hezbollah commander in an Israeli attack in Beirut.
In Israel, Blinken will try to “negotiate a ceasefire and the release of hostages and detainees,” the State Department said.
Of the 251 hostages taken during the Hamas offensive, 111 are still in Gaza, 39 of whom the military says are dead. More than 100 were released during a week-long ceasefire in November.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club monitor said that since the start of the Gaza war, Israeli forces have detained “more than 10,000 Palestinians” in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967.
At a rally in the Israeli city of Haifa on Saturday, Guri Lotto, 51, said he was protesting to “put pressure on the government” to reach a deal for the release of hostages and end the war.
A U.S. official traveling with Blinken, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that “there is a feeling … that various issues that already exist can be resolved, and that work will continue.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
