Israeli air raids continued taking the lives of at least 19 people in the past 24 hours; the victims included a woman and her six children, as Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, is to arrive in the region on Sunday for the purpose of finalizing the cease-fire agreement after weeks of fierce negotiations.
The US, together with Egypt and Qatar mediating parties, appeared to be nearing the setting of the deal after two days of negotiations in Doha; that was evident from the guarded optimism of the American and Israeli delegates. However, Hamas seems to have refused to accept fresh conditions set by Israel, and the negotiations that have been ongoing for years have time and again stalemated.
The changing plan, which would be implemented in three stages, would have Hamas set free all the hostages who were abducted during the Oct. 7 assault by the group that led to the severest conflict ever seen between Israelis and Palestinians. To this end, Israel would pull out its military from Gaza and “release Palestinian prisoners.”
The mediators try to put an end to the conflict that claimed more than 40,000 Palestinian lives, according to the local health care officials, and affected the overwhelming majority of the population—more than two million—leaving the majority of them refugees. 3 million residents, including children, were killed, which led to the creation of a humanitarian crisis. They have painted worrisome pictures of famine and arousal of diseases such as polio.
Palestinian Hamas-led militants butchered about 1,200 people, the majority of whom were ordinary citizens, in the October 7 attack, and those that were lucky to be alive were taken hostage. Of those, there are still thought to be 110 in Gaza, according to Israeli sources, some 30% of whom are believed to be dead. During a one-week truce in November, over 100 of the hostages were freed.
The latest Israeli attack included a raid on a house in the central town of Deir al-Balah early Sunday, which claimed a woman and her six children, said the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. A fellow Associated Press reporter who was at the hospital tallied them up.
