The US has drafted a new UN security council resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, amid mounting pressure on Isreal to halt its military campaign and allow the delivery of substantial amounts of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.
Prior Security Council texts containing the word “immediate” had been blocked by Washington; however, US top diplomat Antony Blinken confirmed the change in stance on Wednesday.
Blinken emphasized that any immediate ceasefire must be connected to the release of hostages taken by Palestinian militants during the October 7 attack that ignited the conflict. Blinken is scheduled to meet with five Arab foreign ministers in Egypt on Thursday.
Overnight, the Israeli bombardment of Gaza persisted, and according to the health ministry in the territory controlled by Hamas, at least 70 people had died, bringing the total number of casualties close to 32,000.
“We were sleeping safely when we heard a big blast,” Gaza resident Mahmud Abu Arar told AFP following an Israeli bombardment in the southern city of Rafah on Wednesday.
He claimed he had recovered bodies from the debris and that the explosion was “like an earthquake.”
Israel accused Palestinian militants of hiding out in Gaza’s largest hospital, and after launching a days-long raid that it claimed on Thursday had killed over 140 fighters, the hospital has become a major flashpoint in the city.
According to Hamas, it is illegal to continue attacking the enormous Al-Shifa medical facility, which is teeming with patients and people fleeing for their lives.
The majority of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure has crumbled, and the 2.4 million residents of the territory face starvation, according to UN agencies.
Prior UN Security Council texts on the nearly six-month conflict have been vetoed by the United States, which even objected last month to the word “immediate” in an Algerian draft.
According to an updated version seen by AFP and distributed by the US, “an immediate and durable ceasefire” is necessary to safeguard civilians and permit humanitarian aid to enter the region.
Although there isn’t a scheduled vote on the text, Blinken stated on Wednesday to the Saudi media outlet Al Hadath that supporting the resolution would send a “strong message.”
On Friday, the US secretary of state, whose diplomatic push coincides with efforts to mediate in Qatar, will touch down in Israel.
A six-week ceasefire that would allow hostages to be traded for Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel and expand aid deliveries was one of the proposals put forth by Hamas for the Qatar talks.
However, Israel’s response, according to senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan, based in Lebanon, has been “largely negative” and “a step backwards.”
The last area of Gaza that is mainly unaffected by Israeli ground forces is the city of Rafah in the south, which is the subject of a diplomatic tug-of-war between the US and Israel.
Although thousands of Palestinians have fled to the city to avoid fighting elsewhere, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu has maintained that the only way to completely eradicate Hamas is through a ground invasion.
Although they backed Netanyahu’s objective, US officials said they preferred Israel to explore other options before launching a potentially disastrous invasion of the region, which is home to about 1.5 million people who are confined by the Egyptian border.
An AFP tally of Israeli official figures indicates that 1,160 people died in Israel as a result of Hamas’s attacks, the majority of whom were civilians. This led to the outbreak of the bloodiest-ever Gaza war.
About 250 hostages were also taken by militants; of these, Israel estimates that 130 are still in Gaza, 33 of whom are thought to be dead.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, Israel’s military has killed 31,988 people in a retaliatory offensive against Hamas, the majority of whom were women and children.
Israel has long accused the militant organization of using hospitals and other civilian infrastructure as a cover for its activities, and Netanyahu has pledged to eradicate Hamas entirely.
Since the operation started on Monday, hundreds of suspects, including “dozens of senior terrorists and those with key positions,” have been detained, according to the Israeli army at Al-Shifa hospital.
“Over 140 terrorists have been eliminated” since the raid began on Monday, according to a statement released by the Israeli army on Thursday.
At Al-Shifa, Hamas charged Israeli troops with “crimes,” citing “executions of dozens of displaced persons, patients, and staff.”
