In Qatar, Antony Blinken urges Hamas to accept Gaza truce proposal

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday urged Hamas to accept the latest US truce proposal for the Gaza Strip, saying the time was running out. “account” After more than ten months of war with Israel in the Palestinian territory. Triggered by an attack of unprecedented scale by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil on October 7, the war in Gaza is unabated and the mediating countries (the United States, Qatar and Egypt) are trying to bring the two belligerents to an agreement on a ceasefire.

Israel and Hamas have repeatedly accused each other of blocking a deal, amid international concerns about the spread of war in the region. On the ground, an Israeli strike on Tuesday on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City killed at least 12 Palestinians, including children, according to the local Civil Defense.

The Israeli army, which said it had targeted “hidden terrorists” in the establishment, announced for his part that he had recovered in the territory the bodies of six hostages kidnapped during the Hamas attack. While he is making his ninth trip to the Middle East since October 7, the head of American diplomacy, whose country is Israel’s first ally, met in Doha with the Minister of State of Qatar Mohammed ben Abdelaziz al-Khoulaifi, without meeting the emir as initially planned. During their meeting, they stressed the need “of an easing of tensions in the region”according to the Qatari Foreign Ministry.

Washington has submitted a compromise proposal for a truce during negotiations in Doha between Israel and the mediators, and further talks are expected in Egypt this week. Antony Blinken said Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “accepted” this plan and called on Hamas to “do the same”He reiterated this request on Tuesday.