The United States said Tuesday it was “time to finalize” a Gaza truce deal, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to give in to pressure on the issue, in the 11th month of the war with Palestinian Hamas. The American statement comes two days after the Israeli army announced the discovery in a Gaza tunnel of six hostages killed according to it at “point-blank range” by the Islamist movement.
The hostages were kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip in an unprecedented attack by Hamas on October 7 against Israel, which gave Israeli a long-awaited chance to attack Gaza that left tens of thousands dead in the besieged Palestinian territory, which was the target of new deadly strikes on Tuesday.
The news of the discovery of the six bodies has increased pressure on Netanyahu, leading to thousands of protests in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, accompanied by a strike in several cities to demand a deal to free the hostages still held in Gaza. “There are still dozens of hostages in Gaza, still waiting for a deal that will bring them home. It is time to finalize that deal,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Tuesday.
A truce associated with the release of the hostages?
He said that “in the coming days, the United States will continue to engage with its partners in the region in order to obtain a final agreement,” referring to the negotiations under the aegis of the mediators – the United States, Qatar, Egypt – with a view to a truce agreement associated with the release of hostages.
US President Joe Biden, whose country is Israel’s main ally, had himself criticized the Israeli prime minister for not doing enough to reach an agreement on the hostages. After publicly asking “forgiveness” for not having brought back alive the six hostages, Netanyahu vowed to make the Islamist movement pay “a very high price”. “I will not give in to pressure,” he insisted. He also reaffirmed the need for Israel to maintain control of a corridor along the border between Gaza and Egypt, a sticking point in the negotiations.
Hamas is demanding an Israeli withdrawal from the corridor, which Israeli forces seized last May, and ultimately a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. On Monday evening, Hamas’s military wing spokesman Abu Obeida warned that the hostages still held in Gaza would be sent back “in coffins” if Israel continued its military pressure “instead of reaching an agreement.”
Netanyahu wants to occupy Gaza indefinitely
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Tuesday called for an “independent, impartial, and transparent” investigation into the “summary execution” of the six hostages. “Of course, the West Bank does not exist on Netanyahu’s map. And Gaza is the forever Israeli enclave,” Mairav Zonszein, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, wrote on platform X. “He basically announced that there will never be a deal on the hostages.”
Of course, the West Bank does not exist on Netanyahu's map. And Gaza is the forever Israeli enclave.
This speech will go down in history as Netanyahu's open admission to that world that Israel will remain between the river and the sea indefinitely, as long as he rules. pic.twitter.com/JETV5X1WpR
— Mairav Zonszein מרב זונשיין (@MairavZ) September 2, 2024
The Israeli prime minister says he wants to continue the war until the destruction of Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007 and is considered a terrorist movement by the United States and the European Union. Taking advantage of “humanitarian pauses” of three days each, an anti-polio campaign was launched on Sunday in the center of Gaza with the aim of vaccinating more than 640,000 children under the age of ten throughout the territory.
The campaign is going “well,” said Rik Peeperkorn, an official with the World Health Organization (WHO). The total number of children under 10 vaccinated so far is 161,000, he said. The campaign is expected to move to the south of the territory on Thursday with the aim of vaccinating some 340,000 children and then to the north to vaccinate another 150,000.
No respite in the Gaza Strip
Meanwhile, the Israeli offensive in Gaza continues unabated. In the south, two Palestinians were killed when a shell hit a tent for displaced people in Khan Younis, according to the civil defense. In the center, a strike targeted a house near Al-Bureij and artillery fire targeted Nusseirat.
In the north, two people were killed and about 30 injured, some seriously, in an Israeli bombing of a school in Gaza City, according to the civil defense. According to the Israeli army, the strike targeted a Hamas command center on a site that previously housed a school.
The army is also continuing its “anti-terrorist” operation in the north of the occupied West Bank for the seventh consecutive day, during which three people were killed on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, bringing the number of Palestinian deaths since August 28 to 30.
