Hopes faded Thursday for a ceasefire in the devastated Gaza Strip, where the war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas continues unabated, despite pressure from the United States to wrest an agreement from the warring parties.
After more than ten months of a war that has left tens of thousands dead in the besieged Palestinian territory, new negotiations between Israel and mediators from the United States, Qatar and Egypt are in principle scheduled for this week in Cairo.
After a tour of the Middle East by his Secretary of State Antony Blinken which did not produce a breakthrough, the American president, Joe Biden, “underlined the urgency of finalizing an agreement on a ceasefire and the release of the hostages”, in an exchange with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Wednesday.
But Mr Netanyahu’s office said he was insisting on achieving “all the objectives of the war”, which was triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7 in which hostages were taken to Gaza.
“This requires securing the southern border” of Gaza with Egypt, he said, referring to a strip of land along the border known as the “Philadelphia corridor.”
This condition of Israel is rejected by the Islamist movement, which accused the United States of having included it in its latest compromise proposal, announced last week without its details being made public.
“Only Son”
During his tour, Mr. Blinken stressed American opposition to a “long-term Israeli occupation of Gaza” after saying that Mr. Netanyahu had accepted the American plan and called on Hamas to do the same.
According to the Israeli daily Yedioth AhronothMr. Blinken made a misstep by saying that Mr. Netanyahu had accepted it. The White House coordinator for the Middle East, Brett McGurk, was dispatched to Cairo to find a solution to the “Philadelphia corridor” issue.
“Reports that the prime minister agreed to Israel’s withdrawal from the Philadelphia corridor are inaccurate,” said David Mencer, a spokesman for the Israeli government.
Hamas insists on implementing, as is, a plan announced on May 31 by Joe Biden, which it had accepted. It provides for a six-week truce accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of hostages, then, in a second phase, a total Israeli withdrawal from the territory.
For the United States, a ceasefire in Gaza would help prevent a flare-up in the Middle East, after threats by Iran and its allies – Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah – to retaliate for the assassination, attributed to Israel, of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on July 31 in Tehran.
On October 7, Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza into southern Israel carried out an attack that killed 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data. Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 105 are still being held in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the army.
On Wednesday, the parents of an Israeli-American hostage, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who is being held in Gaza, spoke at the Democratic convention in Chicago.
“Among the hostages there are eight American citizens. And one of them is our only son,” his mother, Rachel, said through tears.
“Death, the only certainty”
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007 and considers a terrorist organization, along with the United States and the European Union.
Its army launched a response campaign of aerial bombardments followed by a ground offensive in Gaza that left at least 40,265 dead, according to the Hamas government’s health ministry, which did not provide details on the number of civilians and fighters killed. But according to the UN, most of the dead were women and minors.
In the Gaza Strip, where some 2.4 million people are facing a humanitarian disaster, the Israeli army said it had “dismantled dozens of terrorist sites” and “eliminated more than 50 terrorists.”
According to Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the Civil Defense in Gaza, five bodies were removed from the rubble of a house in Khan Younis (south) hit by an Israeli strike.
Witnesses reported shelling in central and southern Gaza, as well as clashes between the army and Palestinian fighters in the north.
“Death seems to be the only certainty” for Gaza residents with “no safe place” away from Israeli bombardment, a spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, Louise Wateridge, said on Tuesday during a mission to the Palestinian territory.