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US secretary of state heads to Israel as Israeli spy chief travels to Qatar for ceasefire talks; US draft resolution calls for an immediate truce as part of a hostage deal
The US secretary of state Antony Blinken is heading to Israel on Friday to press for a truce in Gaza, ahead of a key UN security council vote on a draft resolution by the US calling for an “immediate” ceasefire.
Israel’s main backer the US announced it would submit the resolution on Friday, after repeatedly using its veto power to block other similarly worded resolutions, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
EU leaders have overcome their differences to call for an “immediate humanitarian pause leading to a sustainable ceasefire” in Gaza, hours before the US is expected to bring a resolution to a vote at the UN calling for a truce and a hostage deal without delay in the face of a looming famine.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said that negotiating teams are working “every single day” on a deal to get a ceasefire in Gaza in conjunction with a deal to release the remaining hostages taken from Israel into Gaza by Hamas. He added that there are still “real challenges” to a deal and he can not put a timeline on it, Reuters reports.
UK foreign secretary David Cameron has accused Israel of demanding the closure of a key aid crossing into Gaza, in a clash with a British-born government spokesperson that has reportedly resulted in the official’s suspension.
Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the US House of Representatives, said on Thursday that he plans to invite Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before the US Congress. The comments come a week after Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader, called for elections in Israel which could oust Netanyahu, claiming the prime minister has “has lost his way”.
Cyprus is planning to get “as many boats as possible” to Gaza along a maritime corridor, Cyprus’s foreign minister, Constantinos Kombos, said, Agence France-Presse reports. In a meeting on Thursday, Cyprus hosted representatives from 36 countries, UN agencies and humanitarian groups in the port of Larnaca, where the first aid vessel set sail to Gaza earlier this month.
World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said that the “future of an entire generation is in serious peril” in Gaza. Adding that children are dying from the effects of malnutrition and disease, and from a lack of adequate water and sanitation, the WHO director-general said: “Recent efforts to deliver food by air and sea are welcome, but only the expansion of land crossings will enable large scale deliveries to prevent famine.”
Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has said that she will visit the Middle East on Sunday. It will be her seventh visit since the 7 October attack inside southern Israel by Hamas.
Australia and Britain have said in a joint statement there were potentially devastating consequences of an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah in Gaza.
“Given the large number of displaced persons taking refuge in the area and lack of safe spaces in Gaza, ministers shared deep concern at the potentially devastating consequences for the civilian population of an expanded Israeli military operation in Rafah,” the statement said. It also called on Israel to allow immediate, safe, unimpeded and increased humanitarian relief to reach Palestinians in Gaza.
A second ship, the Jennifer, capable of transporting up to 600 tons, will ply the newly inaugurated sea corridor connecting Cyprus with Gaza as soon as weather conditions allow. “It will go either at the end of this week or the beginning of next due to weather conditions,” Cyprus’s foreign ministry spokesperson Theodoros Gotsis told the Guardian of the second aid mission.
Satellite images analysed by the UN’s Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) showed that 35% of the Gaza Strip’s buildings have been destroyed or damaged by Israel since October. Khan Younis City had been hit “particularly hard”, it said, with 6,663 newly destroyed structures.
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