Qatar, which has long mediated with Hamas, has been working with the US and Egypt to broker a ceasefire that would involve an extended halt in fighting and the release of the 100-plus hostages still held by Hamas after its October 7 cross-border raid that ignited the war nearly four months ago.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani did not provide any details on Hamas’ response, but said the group had “comments”. Blinken confirmed officials had received Hamas’ response and said he would brief Israel’s leaders when he visits the country on Wednesday.
Hamas said it responded in a “positive spirit” to the latest proposal from the US and Mid-East mediators. But the militant group says it still seeks “a comprehensive and complete” ceasefire to end “the aggression against our people”. Israel has ruled out the kind of permanent ceasefire sought by the group.
Blinken met with Egyptian officials earlier in the day and was in Saudi Arabia on Monday.
Soldiers on patrol in southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip. Photo / AP
His visit also comes amid growing concerns in Egypt about Israel’s stated intentions to expand the combat in Gaza to areas on the Egyptian border that are crammed with displaced Palestinians.
Israel’s Defence Minister has said his country’s offensive will eventually reach the town of Rafah on the Egyptian border, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have sought refuge and are living in increasingly miserable conditions.
Egypt has warned that an Israeli deployment along the border would threaten the peace treaty the two countries signed more than four decades ago. Egypt fears an expansion of combat to the Rafah area could push terrified Palestinian civilians across the border, a scenario Egypt has said it is determined to prevent.
Blinken, who met with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo, has said repeatedly that Palestinians must not be forced out of Gaza.
Palestinians mourn relatives, killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, outside a morgue in Rafah, southern Gaza. Photo / AP
Blinken pushing for progress
During this trip, Blinken is seeking progress on a ceasefire deal, on potential normalisation of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and preventing an escalation of regional fighting.
On all three fronts, Blinken faces major challenges. Hamas and Israel are publicly at odds over key elements of a potential truce. Israel has dismissed the United States’ calls for a path to a Palestinian state, and Iran’s militant allies in the region have shown little sign of being deterred by US strikes.
Egypt and Qatar have been trying to mediate an agreement between Israel and Hamas that would lead to the release of more hostages in return for a several-week pause in Israeli military operations. The outlines of such a deal were worked out by intelligence chiefs from the US, Egypt, Qatar and Israel last month and have been presented to Hamas, which has not yet formally responded.
As on his previous four trips to the Middle East since the Gaza war began, Blinken’s other main goal is to prevent the conflict from spreading, a task made more difficult by stepped-up attacks by Iran-backed militias in the region and increasingly severe US military responses in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and the Red Sea that have intensified since last week.
Blinken met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday evening, shortly after arriving in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Saudi officials have said the kingdom is still interested in normalising relations with Israel in a potentially historic deal, but only if there is a credible plan to create a Palestinian state.
Palestinians gather around a Hamas police vehicle hit by an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza Strip. Photo / AP
Fighting throughout Gaza
Any such grand bargain appears a long way off as the war still rages in Gaza.
The Palestinian death toll from nearly four months of war has reached 27,585, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory, with 107 bodies brought to hospitals in the past day. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but says most of the dead have been women and children.
The war has levelled vast swaths of the tiny enclave and pushed a quarter of its residents to starvation.
Israel has vowed to continue the war until it crushes Hamas’ military and governing abilities and wins the return of the 100-plus hostages still held by the militant group.
Hamas and other militants killed some 1200 people, mostly civilians, in the October 7 attack that ignited the war and abducted about 250. More than 100 captives, mostly women and children, were released during a weeklong ceasefire in November in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday it was battling militants in areas throughout the Gaza Strip, including the southern city of Khan Younis, where it said troops killed dozens of militants in the past day.
An Israeli airstrike in the city hit an apartment building, killing two parents and four of their five children, according to the children’s grandfather.
Mahmoud al-Khatib said his 41-year-old son, Tariq, was asleep with his family when an Israeli warplane bombed their apartment in the middle of the night. The Israeli military rarely comments on individual strikes, but blames Hamas for civilian deaths, saying the militants are embedded in civilian areas.
Humanitarian crisis persists
UN humanitarian monitors said on Tuesday that Israel’s evacuation orders in the Gaza Strip now covered two-thirds of the territory, or 246sq km. The affected area was home to 1.78 million Palestinians, or 77 per cent of Gaza’s population, before the war.
The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its daily report that the newly displaced have only about 1.5 to 2 litres of water a day to drink, cook and wash. It also reported a significant increase in chronic diarrhoea among children.
Parents of babies face a particularly difficult challenge because of the high cost or lack of diapers, baby formula and milk.
Zainab Al-Zein, who is sheltering in the central town of Deir al-Balah, said she had to feed her 2-month-old daughter solid food such as biscuits and ground rice, well ahead of the typical 6-month mark because milk and formula were not available.
“This is known, of course, as unhealthy eating, and we know that it causes her intestinal distress, bloating and colic,” al-Zein said. “As you can see, 24 hours like this, she cries and cries continuously.”
