US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to arrive in the Middle East for the tenth time amid ongoing negotiations to end the war between Israel and Hamas.
The US top diplomat’s visit to the region comes days after the United States put forward proposals to build bridges that would bridge differences between the warring parties. The talks come amid a dangerous regional backdrop as Iran has threatened to retaliate against Israel following the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on 31 July. Washington has urged Iran to refrain from responding.
In the meantime, US officials are once again optimistic that the deal will come to fruition, but there is still growing concern that these talks will also fail. Except, they said they made progress and put forward a proposal to bridge the differences between Israel and Hamas, with talks resuming next week in Cairo.
Blinken flew out of Andrews Air Force Base after two days of ceasefire talks, according to Le Monde. In Israel, he will meet senior officials and Israel’s prime minister, who is facing harsh criticism from far-right allies who have kept his government in power.
The ceasefire talks and the meeting between the top US diplomat and offiicials from Israel come amid the ongoing conflict. The Israel Defence Forces struck the town of Zawayda in Gaza yesterday, killing at least 17 Palestinians. Medical officials said the Israeli airstrike in central Gaza killed seven members of one family, including six children and their mother, according to Al-Aqsa Hospital on Sunday, 18 August.
Pope Francis condemned the Israeli army’s actions in the Gaza Strip amid a series of brutal attacks on civilian targets during the week. The statement comes after reports of Israeli snipers killing two Christian women in Gaza’s only Catholic church.
On Friday, Israel struck targets in tiny, densely populated Gaza and issued new evacuation orders. Palestinians in Gaza are facing a flood of evacuation orders. According to the UN, more than 80 per cent of the Gaza Strip has suffered such orders since last October, severely affecting the local population’s access to basic services and shelter.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza, launched after Hamas attacks on 7 October, has killed more than 40,000 people and reduced much of the territory to rubble. Adding to the woes of Gazans, doctors this week discovered the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years.
