A six-week truce, a withdrawal of the Israeli army from populated areas of Gaza and the release of hostages. This is what the “compromise plan” proposed by the United States and which Israel has just accepted, Antony Blinken announced on Monday, August 19. From Tel Aviv, the American Secretary of State declared that he had obtained Benjamin Netanyahu’s agreement, and then addressed Hamas, incumbent on it “to do the same”. While negotiations are underway “to obtain a ceasefire” Gaza strikes are due to resume on Tuesday in Cairo, Hamas has rejected the new plan, saying it “met the conditions set by Netanyahu”particularly on the maintenance of Israeli troops on the border between Gaza and Egypt. Follow our live coverage.
Hamas threatens Israel with attacks on its soil. Its armed branch and that of Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility in a joint statement: “Sunday night’s suicide attack in Tel Aviv”. The attack, carried out by a Palestinian carrying a backpack loaded with explosives, lightly injured a passerby, according to Israeli police. The Ezzedine al-Qassam and al-Quds Brigades warned Israel that the attacks “will return to the forefront” as long as the fighting continues in Gaza.
The fate of the hostages is mobilizing attention in Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he wants to free a “maximum number of hostages alive” from the first phase of the American plan. The day before, a new demonstration took place in Tel Aviv, in the presence of relatives of Israeli hostages, still held by Hamas. The father of one of them, Elie Albag, declared in particular: “In this raging war, we know how to get in, but we don’t know how to get out.”.
Continued violence in the occupied West Bank and Lebanon. The Israeli army said it had targeted, on Monday, “a number of Hezbollah weapons storage facilities“, in eastern Lebanon. Earlier in the day, an Israeli soldier and two fighters from the Lebanese organization were killed near the border. In the occupied West Bank, Hamas’s health ministry reports at least 40,099 deaths since the start of the Israeli offensive.