(Doha) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday he was determined to push for a ceasefire in Gaza, expressing hope that differences between the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and Israel can be bridged, after eight months of war.
On the ground, deadly Israeli bombings continued to target several sectors of Palestinian territory, where residents cry out in despair.
“Hamas can’t see that we are tired? We are dead, destroyed […] The war must end at any cost. We can’t take it anymore,” Abou Chaker, a resident of Gaza City in the north of the territory besieged by the Israeli army, told AFP.
” Enough ! We are exhausted! Every day we are forced to move. Our children are deprived of food and water,” cried Ezzedine al-Belbissi from the Bureij camp (center).
Concluding a tour of four countries, including Israel, in Doha, Mr. Blinken said his country would work with the other mediating countries – Qatar and Egypt – to reach a ceasefire agreement.
“The longer this (war) lasts, the more people will suffer, and it is time to stop the bargaining,” he said.
On Tuesday, Hamas announced that it had submitted to Qatar and Egypt its response to the plan announced on May 31 by US President Joe Biden.
This plan provides, in a first phase, for a six-week ceasefire accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas of Gaza, the release of certain hostages held in Gaza since the Hamas attack on October 7 against Israel, and the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
The content of Hamas’ response was not revealed.
But Mr. Blinken said in Doha that “some changes” demanded by Hamas were “feasible, others were not.” “I think this gap can be bridged,” he added, however.
In announcing the ceasefire plan, Mr. Biden presented it as an Israeli proposal.
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will continue the war until Hamas is defeated.
Demands already formulated by the Palestinian movement and rejected by Israel.
Mr. Netanyahu’s office announced a meeting of security officials Wednesday evening after “Hamas’ negative response regarding the release of the hostages,” without providing further details.
The Families Forum, the main association of relatives of hostages, urged the government to act quickly, because “any delay could seriously endanger the hostages. »
In Doha, Blinken said the United States would present “in the coming weeks the key elements” for the post-war era, “including concrete ideas on how to manage governance, security and reconstruction » in Gaza.
The war was triggered by an October 7 attack by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza into southern Israel, which killed 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data. Of the 251 people kidnapped, 116 are still being held hostage in Gaza, including 41 who are dead, according to the army.
His army launched a major offensive in Gaza that has so far killed 37,202 people, mostly civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.
Israeli operations show no respite. On Wednesday, seven people were killed in Gaza City and a child was killed in Rafah in the south, according to doctors.
In Geneva, a UN commission of inquiry found that Israel was responsible for “crimes against humanity”, including “extermination”, in the Palestinian territory. She also accused the Israeli authorities and seven Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas, of war crimes.
The UN is concerned about the risk of famine in Gaza, where at least 1.7 million Palestinians, out of an estimated 2.4 million residents, have been repeatedly displaced by war.
More than 8,000 children under the age of five were treated in Gaza for acute malnutrition, “including 1,600 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition” and 28 died, the World Health Organization revealed.
The war has also led to an outbreak of violence on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where exchanges of fire have intensified between the Israeli army and Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for firing “dozens of Katyushas” as well as guided missiles, vowing to “increase” its attacks against Israel.