2023-11-30 22:09:00
The US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinkenhas traveled for the third time to Israel with the countdown activated for the return of violence in the Gaza Strip. After an in extremis negotiation to extend the truce, the Hebrew authorities and Hamas This Thursday they agreed to the extension for one more day just 10 minutes before the established time was up. It remains to be seen if they will push this Friday morning to the limit to continue prolonging it. During his visit, Blinken has asked that it be maintained because he “is giving results”, as he celebrated in front of the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog. He has also reminded Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of “the imperative to take into account humanitarian and civil protection needs in the on Gaza before any military operation there” and has urged “Israel to take all possible measures to avoid harm to civilians.” He has warned the war cabinet that if fighting expands to the south of the Strip, it will also increase international pressure on Israel. On the supposed last day of the truce, two other hostages have been released, one of them is a French national and starred in the first Hamas video of a captive published since October 7.
Blinken has returned to the Hebrew State to reiterate the message that most concerns the administration of US President Joe Biden. As Netanyahu has repeatedly expressed that, once the truce ends, the Israeli Army will redouble its attacks on the Gaza Strip, there is fear in Washington that civilian deaths increase even moreSince the on and the center of Gaza now contain the 80% of the enclave’s residents after Israel ordered more than a million Palestinians to leave northern Gaza to avoid being caught up in the fighting that has taken place in this area. This is how he expressed it John Kirbystrategic communications coordinator of the National Security Council from the White House: “We do not support operations in the south unless or until the Israelis can demonstrate that they have responded to all internally displaced persons in Gaza.”
Blinken has told members of the Israeli war cabinet that if Israel does not take measures to reduce harm to civilians In the next phase of the fighting in the Gaza Strip, it will have a few weeks to complete the fighting. He asked them how long they thought the fighting in the south would last after the ceasefire, warning that widespread damage to civilians or the deterioration of the region into a major humanitarian disaster would shorten the amount of time in which the United States and other countries Westerners could continue to support Israel without reservation. During their meeting, Blinken and Netanyahu also discussed the “release of all remaining hostages and the need to accelerate the delivery of humanitarian assistance criticism that saves lives in Gaza.
Despite reiterating his support for “Israel’s right to protect itself from terrorist violence in accordance with international humanitarian law,” Blinken has demanded that the country take “immediate measures to hold extremist settlers accountable for the violence against the Palestinians in the West Bank.” He went there precisely after meeting with Israeli leaders to meet with the president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Mahmoud Abbas. In Ramallah, Blinken has insisted on the American commitment to “advance tangible steps towards a Palestinian state” and have discussed “measures to improve the security and freedom of Palestinians in the West Bank.” For his part, Abbas has shown his willingness for the PA to take control of Gaza the day after.
247 Palestinians killed
Until Wednesday night, a hundred hostagessome 75 Israelis and another 24 foreigners, have left Gaza in exchange for the release of more than 200 Palestinian prisoners, children and women who were in Israeli prisons. Since the beginning of the truce, more than 1,100 humanitarian aid trucks have entered the Palestinian enclave through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported, although the Gaza Government’s press office has said the flow of humanitarian aid is “slow, ineffective and complicated” and has demanded that at least 1,000 trucks a day would have to enter the enclave, where some have already died 15.000 personas. Another 7,000 remain missing or feared to be buried under rubble, causing the real death toll to be much higher. Furthermore, with 26 of Gaza’s 35 hospitals out of service, the 36,000 Palestinians who have been injured have little chance of receiving treatment.
Los Egyptian and Qatari negotiators They have announced that they are pressing to extend the ceasefire in Gaza for two more days and to release more prisoners. A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdanhas questioned the extension of the truce during an interview with the Lebanese television network Al Mayadeen because Israel’s proposals are not enough to maintain it. “Efforts to extend the truce have not yet matured and what has been presented to us so far to extend it is not worthy of study,” she stated. As Israel’s most loyal ally, Blinken told Herzog that “we look forward to detailed conversations with the Israeli government on the way forward in Gaza“.
Meanwhile, this Thursday Jerusalem has dawned again bloodied by an attack claimed by Hamas in the western part of the city. At least three people have died in the shooting at a bus stop at the entrance to the city and six have been injured. Israeli security forces have killed the two attackers.
Furthermore, in the Occupied West Bank, the ceasefire has never come. The Palestinian Ministry of Health has announced the death of 21-year-old who was shot by Israeli troops near Ofer prison during the release of Palestinian prisoners. Fadi Badran, from the city of Beitunia where the penitentiary center is located, was not one of the prisoners who had been released. The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that Israeli security forces entered neighborhoods near the prison and clashes broke out between them and Palestinian residents. Since October 7, at least 247 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied Palestinian territories. Every day on average in the last two months, the Israeli soldiers and radical settlers kill more than four Palestinians.
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