It came only hours after United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken left empty-handed after a tour of the Middle East aimed at reaching a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Blinken appealed to Hamas to urgently accept a US-backed truce proposal, while also entering into a public spat with Israel over its future presence in the besieged Palestinian territory.
“Time is of the essence,” Blinken said before flying out of Doha after stops in Qatar, Egypt and Israel on his ninth regional tour seeking to halt the Gaza war.
“This needs to get done, and it needs to get done in the days ahead, and we will do everything possible to get it across the finish line,” he said of the truce proposal.
The US has presented ideas to bridge gaps and, through Qatar and Egypt, pressed Hamas to return to talks this week in Cairo.
But a day after Blinken said US ally Israel was on board, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted by Israeli media as disagreeing on a key sticking point.
Netanyahu insisted Israel maintain control of the Philadelphi Corridor, the border between Gaza and Egypt that Israeli forces seized from Hamas, whom Israel says relies on secret tunnels to bring in weapons.
STICKING POINT
Blinken said Israel had already agreed on the “schedule and location” of troop withdrawals from Gaza.
Since the conflict began, it was made “very clear that the US does not accept any long-term occupation of Gaza by Israel”, Blinken said when asked about Netanyahu’s remarks.
A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, called Netanyahu’s “maximalist statements” unhelpful for reaching a truce.
Blinken acknowledged differences and called for “maximum flexibility” from both Israel and Hamas.
Egypt, the first Arab nation to make peace with Israel, has been infuriated by the border takeover.
Hamas said it was “keen to reach a ceasefire” but protested “new conditions” from Israel in the latest US proposal.
On the ground, Gaza was again rocked by air strikes, AFP reporters, first responders and witnesses said.
The Israeli military said it struck about 30 targets throughout Gaza and that troops “eliminated dozens” of militants.
The United Natioins agency for Palestinian refugees said death appeared to be the “only certainty” for Gaza’s 2.4 million people, with no way to escape Israel’s bombardment.
“Absolutely nowhere is safe,” said UNRWA spokeswoman Louise Wateridge. “People … feel like they’re being chased around in circles.
“Death seems to be the only certainty,” she told AFPTV.
As tensions escalated, Lebanon’s health ministry said earlier Israeli strikes in the country’s east killed one person and wounded 20, hours after four were killed in the south.
Cross-border skirmishes have taken place almost daily between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, but fears of a greater crisis soared when Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed on a visit to Tehran on Jul 31.
Iran has vowed retaliation, blaming Israel for the assassination, but has held off so far, with the US sending additional forces and warning a wider war could destroy prospects for a Gaza ceasefire.
Discussion about this post