Anger over Israel’s actions in Gaza is growing across the Middle East (file photo)
Palestinian territories:
US President Joe Biden on Tuesday called on Hamas to accept a Gaza ceasefire ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, while Palestinian oppression groups warned talks on a truce and hostage release cannot continue “indefinitely”.
As famine threatens Gaza, U.S. and Jordanian aircraft are once again joining forces with Egypt and France to airdrop food aid to the besieged 2.4 million people.
US Vice President Kamala Harris expressed “deep concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza”, while the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that children were dying of starvation in two hospitals in northern Gaza.
Envoys from Hamas and the United States have been meeting with Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Cairo to negotiate a six-week truce, the exchange of dozens of hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and aid to Gaza.
Egypt’s Al-Qahera News, which has close ties to the country’s intelligence services, said talks would continue for a fourth day on Wednesday.
Biden warned Hamas to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza during Ramadan, which begins early next week, after his top diplomat Antony Blinken urged Hamas to accept an “immediate ceasefire.”
“It’s now in the hands of Hamas,” the US president told reporters in Maryland.
“There has to be a ceasefire because of Ramadan – if we get into a situation where ceasefires continue during Ramadan, it could be very, very dangerous for Israel and Jerusalem.”
He did not elaborate, but the United States last week urged Israel to allow Muslims to worship at Jerusalem’s hotspot Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan.
The Israeli government said it would allow Muslim worshipers to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan “in numbers similar to previous years.”
hostage list
The talks in Cairo so far have not included Israel, with Israeli media reporting that Israeli representatives boycotted the talks after Hamas failed to provide a list of living hostages.
However, senior Hamas leader Bassem Naim told AFP that details about the prisoners “were not mentioned in any document or proposal circulated during the negotiations.”
Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official in Beirut, said his organization “will not allow the path to negotiations to remain open indefinitely.”
Israel says it believes 130 of the 250 prisoners taken by Hamas militants in an unprecedented attack on Oct. 7 that sparked the war remain in Gaza, but 31 of them have been killed.
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani met and agreed to “release the sick, wounded, elderly and women hostages would result in an immediate ceasefire in Gaza for at least six “weeks”.
The White House said in minutes of the meeting that the first phase of the ceasefire would allow “substantial humanitarian assistance to be delivered to the people of Gaza and provide time and space to ensure more durable arrangements and continued calm.”
famine is imminent
Israel is facing growing criticism from its top ally, the United States, as the situation in the besieged Palestinian territory worsens and famine looms.
Harris met with Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz in Washington on Monday, the same day the World Health Organization said a weekend aid mission found 10 children dying of starvation at Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals.
In Khan Younis, the main city in southern Gaza, people reported finding decomposing bodies along streets lined with destroyed buildings.
“We have to eat, we have to live. Look at our homes. I am a defenseless single person with no income in this poor country. What’s wrong with that?” Nader Abu Shanab used hair black He pointed at the ruins and said.
U.S. cargo planes airdropped more than 36,000 meals into Gaza on Tuesday in a joint operation with Jordan, which said French and Egyptian aircraft were also involved.
The U.N. World Food Program said an aid convoy was robbed by “desperate people” after Israeli troops turned away an aid convoy at a checkpoint leading to northern Gaza.
Hamas attacks in southern Israel on October 7 killed about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 30,600 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled areas.
intense situation
Tensions have been rising between Israel and the United Nations over the handling of allegations of sexual assault by Hamas militants during an October attack.
The United Nations released a report on Monday saying there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that rape had occurred and that hostages taken to Gaza had also been raped.
Israel accused the United Nations of taking too long to respond to the accusations and recalled its ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, shortly after the report was released.
The war has sparked violence across the region, including near-daily fighting between Israeli forces and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement.
The U.S. military said it shot down three drones and a missile fired at one of its destroyers by Houthi rebels in Yemen’s Red Sea on Tuesday.
The U.S. Central Command issued a statement saying that “an anti-ship ballistic missile and three unidirectional attack drones” had been shot down and that its ship, the USS Carney, had not been damaged.
The Iran-backed Houthis have been attacking shipping in the Red Sea for months, saying they attack ships linked to Israel in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
Anger over Israel’s actions in Gaza is growing across the Middle East, sparking violence involving Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
