SEOUL: The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken Monday called for a final push for a Gaza truce before President Joe Biden leaves office, as Israel has intensified bombardment on the besieged territory taking the overall death toll to more than 45,854 since October 2023.
“We very much want to bring this over the finish line in the next two weeks, the time we have remaining,” Blinken told a news conference in South Korea when asked whether a truce agreement was close.
Israel has sent a delegation of mid-ranking officials to Qatar for talks mediated by Qatar and Egypt. According to media reports, David Barnea, the head of Mossad, who has been leading the negotiations, was expected to join the team. However, the Israeli prime minister’s office declined to comment.
At least 48 more Palestinians were killed in unabated Israeli attacks in Gaza, bringing the overall death toll since October 2023 to 45,854.
It remains uncertain how close the two sides are to reaching an agreement, with some signs of progress, but little indication of a shift in the key demands that have prevented a truce for over a year.
Gaza death toll
Gaza’s health ministry on Monday said at least 48 more Palestinians were killed in unabated Israeli attacks in Gaza, bringing the overall death toll since October 2023 to 45,854.
A ministry statement added that some 109,139 others were wounded in the ongoing assault.
“Israeli forces killed 48 people and injured 75 others in three massacres of families in the last 24 hours,” the ministry said. “Many people are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.
Palestinian babies freeze to death
Meanwhile, an eighth Palestinian baby froze to death in the Gaza Strip, where families are facing harsh winter and Israel continues to restrict the entry of humanitarian supplies.
An official of Hamas said the first swap of the 34 hostages would include all the women, children, elderly people, and sick captives still held in Gaza, adding they needed a “week of calm” to determine their condition, AFP reported.
Three illegal Israeli settlers were killed and six others injured early Monday in a shooting attack near the Kedumim settlement in the northern West Bank.
Hamas described the attack as “a heroic response to the ongoing crimes and war of extermination committed by the (Israeli) occupation against our people in Gaza, the displacement plans in the West Bank, and the settler aggression on the Al-Aqsa Mosque and other holy sites.”
Germany to Israel
Germany has also called on Israel to allow access to the International Red Cross to visit the abducted director of the Gaza-based Kamal Adwan Hospital but stopped short of demanding his release.
“We demand that Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, be treated according to international standards, has access to the International Red Cross and has access to legal support,” deputy Foreign Ministry spokesman Christian Wagner told journalists in Berlin.
