The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, began a new visit to the region this Monday in the shadow of the dramatic rescue of four Israeli hostages held in Gaza and turmoil in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Blinken met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo, but neither made public comments. Blinken will also travel to Israel, Jordan and Qatar.
The U.N. Security Council scheduled a vote Monday afternoon in New York on a U.S. resolution welcoming a ceasefire proposal announced by President Joe Biden, which it says Israel has accepted. He calls on Hamas to accept the three-phase plan.
The draft resolution calls on both Israel and Hamas to “fully implement its terms, without delay and without conditions.”
While Biden, Blinken and other US officials have praised the hostage rescue, the operation led to the deaths of large numbers of Palestinian civilians and could complicate the ceasefire initiative by emboldening Israel and hardening Hamas’ resolve to continue fighting the war it began with its October 7 attack on Israel.
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 36,730 people, according to the Gaza Office. Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. Palestinians confront widespread hunger because the war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies. UN agencies say more than a million people in Gaza could experience the highest level of hunger in mid-July.
Israel launched the war after Hamas attack on October 7in which militants swept into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 250.
At the moment:
— Blinken returns to the Middle East While the ceasefire proposal between Israel and Hamas hangs by a thread after the rescue of hostages
– As a Israeli raid He freed 4 hostages and killed at least 274 Palestinians in Gaza.
– What are you doing Israel’s rescue of 4 captives, and the murder of 274 Palestinians, do they mean for the truce talks?
— The centrist Benny Gantz is resigning from Israel’s war cabinet, citing frustrations with Netanyahu
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Here’s the latest:
UNITED NATIONS –– The U.N. Security Council scheduled a vote Monday afternoon on a U.S. resolution welcoming a ceasefire proposal announced by President Joe Biden, which he says Israel has accepted. . Calls on Hamas to accept the three-phase plan.
The draft resolution calls on both Israel and Hamas to “fully implement its terms, without delay and without conditions.”
If adopted, it would represent the first Security Council resolution on a ceasefire plan aimed at ultimately ending the eight-month war in Gaza sparked by the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that He killed about 1,200 people and left about 250 captured. hostage. Israel’s military offensive has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.
Deputy U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood told reporters earlier Monday that the United States expected a quick vote but wanted to make sure all 15 members of the Security Council supported the resolution.
“That’s the key here, getting every member of the council on board with this resolution, which gives us the best and most realistic chance of at least temporarily stopping this war,” he said.
The draft resolution outlines the three-phase plan that begins with “an immediate, total and complete ceasefire with the release of the hostages” and the remains of those who died, the exchange of Palestinian prisoners and the withdrawal of Israeli forces. from the populated areas of Gaza. and the return of Palestinian civilians to all areas of the territory. It also requires the safe distribution of humanitarian assistance “on a scale throughout the Gaza Strip.”
In the second phase, the draft resolution says that with the agreement of Israel and Hamas, there will be “a permanent end to hostilities, in exchange for the release of all other hostages still in Gaza, and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces in Gaza.” .
The third phase would launch “a major multi-year reconstruction plan for Gaza and the return of the remains of deceased hostages still in Gaza to their families.”
In a new provision, the final draft of the resolution would “underline” that the proposal says that if negotiations last longer than six weeks for the first phase, “the ceasefire will continue as long as negotiations continue.”
BEIRUT – The Israeli military says one of its drones was shot down by a surface-to-air missile while flying over Lebanon.
Monday’s announcement came after residents in the Apple province region of southern Lebanon said they saw a drone crashing in the area.
Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said its fighters shot down the Hermes 900 Kochav drone.
The Hermes 900 Kochav is a medium-altitude, long-endurance drone that can carry four anti-tank guided missiles.
Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for shooting down five drones since the exchange of fire began along the Lebanon-Israel border, a day after the October 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas, followed eight months of Israeli attacks in Gaza.
In the last almost eight months, more than 400 people have been killed in Lebanon. Most of them were combatants but there are also more than 70 civilians and non-combatants. In Israel, 15 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed since October.
JERUSALEM – Israeli police raided the offices of one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s closest allies after launching a criminal investigation into fraud.
The country’s attorney general and state prosecutor ordered an investigation into the Transportation Ministry after Channel 13 TV reported that Transportation Minister Miri Regev gave preferential treatment to Israeli cities and towns whose local officials supported her politically. .
Regev is one of Netanyahu’s staunchest supporters in the ruling Likud party and has been a lightning rod for controversy throughout her political career.
Agents searched the ministry’s offices in Jerusalem and confiscated documents, police said.
Israeli media reported on Monday that Regev called the investigation “fraudulent” but said the ministry would comply with the investigation.
Netanyahu is currently on trial for a series of corruption charges.
JERUSALEM – Palestinian health officials say Israeli forces killed a 15-year-old Palestinian in an overnight raid on the Al-Fara’a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
The army said on Monday that its soldiers had launched a raid on militants, killing one and wounding two others with live fire.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the slain boy as Mahmoud Nabrisi, 15, and said five others were injured in the camp built, which dates back to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Also on Monday, Israel’s border police said they killed a Palestinian in Tulkarem, a volatile town in the northern West Bank, during an undercover operation to arrest a suspected militant. During the operation, an undercover sniper shot and killed a Palestinian wearing a military vest in the area, police said.
Palestinian health officials did not immediately confirm Tulkarem’s killing, but a traditional funeral procession was planned for Monday afternoon.
Violence in the West Bank intensified dramatically after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza.
Frequent Israeli operations in Palestinian cities and towns in the West Bank have pushed the Palestinian death toll to over 530.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.
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