US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Monday for a new visit to defend a ceasefire plan in the Gaza Strip, bombarded by the Israeli army after more than eight months of war with Hamas.
After a stop in Cairo and a meeting with the Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, Mr. Blinken is due to meet the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem.
In New York, the UN Security Council is due to vote on Monday on a draft American resolution supporting a proposed truce in the Palestinian territory.
This text calls on Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement to apply “without delay and unconditionally” a plan announced on May 31 by American President Joe Biden, and then presented as emanating from Israel.
In Cairo, the head of American diplomacy called on countries in the region to “pressure Hamas” so that it accepts a ceasefire.
“I firmly believe that the overwhelming majority” of Israelis and Palestinians “want to believe in a future” in which the two peoples “live in peace and security,” added Mr. Blinken.
This eighth visit to the region by the Secretary of State since the start of the war between Hamas and Israel aims to advance the truce proposal announced by Joe Biden, which has since encountered contradictory demands from both camps.
Resignation and divisions in Israel
At a time when dissension is growing within the coalition in power in Israel on how to wage the war, the release of four hostages has reinforced Mr. Netanyahu in his military strategy against Hamas, author on October 7 of a bloody attack on Israeli soil.
A sign of these divisions, centrist minister without portfolio Benny Gantz, who demands the adoption of a post-war “action plan”, resigned from the war cabinet on Sunday.
For Mr. Gantz, the priority is to obtain the release of the hostages. Mr. Netanyahu, for his part, assures that he will continue the war until the destruction of Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007 and considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, Canada and the Union. European.
On Saturday, an Israeli special forces operation led to the release of four hostages, a woman and three men, in Nusseirat, in the center of the besieged Palestinian territory.
Hamas’ health ministry said 274 people were killed and 698 injured, denouncing a “massacre” in a densely populated area. This assessment could not be independently verified.
The war in the Gaza Strip was sparked on October 7 by an unprecedented attack by Hamas in southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count. established from official Israeli data.
Of 251 people kidnapped, 116 are still held hostage in Gaza, of whom 41 are dead, according to the Israeli army.
In response, the Israeli army launched an offensive on the Gaza Strip, which left at least 37,124 dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.
Multiple keystrokes
Israeli operations continued on Monday, including a strike on a house in the city of Gaza, in the north of the territory, which left five people dead, including an eight-month pregnant woman, according to Civil Defense.
During the night, Israeli warships targeted the coast of Gaza City, according to an AFP correspondent on site.
Also in the north, an Israeli strike killed two people in a house in Choujaiya, according to al-Ahli hospital.
In the center, the air force carried out a strike on Deir al-Balah, while artillery fire was heard east of this city, where witnesses said they saw the bodies of those killed.
The Israeli army announced that it was engaged in an operation in the east of Deir al-Balah and the east of the nearby Bureij camp. “Soldiers are carrying out ground and underground operations against terrorist infrastructure and locations used to fire rockets into Israel,” she said.
In the south of the territory, witnesses reported artillery fire north of Rafah, where Civil Defense reported deaths and injuries.
According to witnesses, fighting is taking place in the center of Rafah, a town where the army launched a ground offensive on May 7, forcing a million Palestinians to flee, the majority already displaced by the war.
This offensive led to the closure of the Rafah crossing point with Egypt, crucial for the entry of international aid into the territory hit by a humanitarian disaster.
Plan “accepted” by Israel
After months of unsuccessful efforts by the mediating countries, Qatar, Egypt and the United States, to achieve a ceasefire, Washington presented to the UN Security Council a text calling for support for the latest roadmap to date.
This plan provides, in a first phase, for a six-week ceasefire accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas of Gaza, as well as the release of certain hostages kidnapped during the Hamas attack and prisoners Palestinians detained by Israel.
But Hamas has still not officially reacted to this proposal.
The United States clearly places the primary responsibility for accepting this road map on the Islamist movement. The latest version of the American text ensures, unlike the previous ones, that the plan was “accepted” by Israel.