▲ Relatives mourn over the body of photojournalist Ibrahim Muhareb, who was attacked on Sunday while covering the advance of Israeli troops in northern Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, amid clashes between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.Afp Photo
AFP and Xinhua
The newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, August 20, 2024, p. 21
Tel Aviv, Israel continued its attacks on the Gaza Strip yesterday, killing some 40 Palestinians, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the government of right-wing leader Benjamin Netanyahu had accepted a new ceasefire proposal. Blinken did not specify the nature of this offer, but warned that Now it is up to Hamas to do the same..
Netanyahu said that Washington He showed understanding regarding our vital security needsand stressed that the priority is the release of the maximum number of hostages alive during the first phase of the agreement.
Hamas previously dismissed the new proposal because it is too aligned with Israel’s demandswith its insistence on maintaining military forces inside the Palestinian enclave and not accepting an end to the war, but only a pause, and accused Israel of having introduced new demands.
On the other hand, Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed a suicide attack which took place on Sunday in the Israeli capital, leaving one person injured.
The Ezedin al Qasam and Al Quds Brigades, armed wings of the Palestinian organization Hamas and the Lebanese Islamic Jihad, respectively, stated that Suicide attacks will be back in the spotlight as long as the occupier’s (Israel) massacres, forced transfer operations of civilians and the policy of assassinations continue..
The Palestinian, who was carrying a backpack full of explosives, detonated the cargo before he could reach a more densely populated area, said David Mencer, an Israeli government spokesman.
Bomb attacks in Tel Aviv, which were very frequent during the second intifada – the Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s – are now sporadic.
Blinken also said Israel had agreed to support a polio vaccination plan in Gaza.
On Friday, the United Nations (UN) called for the establishment of humanitarian pauses in the area to vaccinate more than 640,000 children, after detecting a case of polio in a 10-month-old baby, the first reported in the Palestinian territory in 25 years.
The UN stressed that vaccination coverage must be at least 95 percent to prevent the spread of polio in the Palestinian territory, since health, water and sanitation systems are very deteriorated.
The quickest and surest way, Blinken added, would be a cessation of hostilities, as it would open up a much broader space for increased humanitarian aid, which for months has only been trickling into Gaza.
On the northern front, Israel attacked weapons depots in southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah bombed Israeli bases.
Israeli forces have killed Hussein Ali Hussein, a key member of the Shiite movement Hezbollah’s missile unit, Tel Aviv reported.
Since October 8, violence on the Lebanese-Israeli border, as a result of the war in Gaza, has left more than 585 dead, mainly Hezbollah fighters, but also some Israeli soldiers and at least 128 civilians on both sides of the territory, according to an AFP count.