The Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sanchez said today that he agreed with the leaders of Ireland, Malta and Slovenia to take the first steps towards the recognition of a Palestinian state.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Friday that an offensive on the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip would risk "further isolation" of Israel and harm its long-term security.
Speaking as he left Israel, Blinken told reporters he had "frank discussions," referring to meetings with officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Reuters reported.
A military ground operation in Rafah "risks killing more civilians. It risks wreaking more havoc on humanitarian aid. It risks further isolating Israel around the world and jeopardizing its long-term security and standing," Blinken said.
In the Israeli military offensive on Gaza since October 7, 32.070 Palestinians were killed and 74.298 were injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, according to Reuters.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on March 22 that Israel is determined to send troops to Rafah, a city in southern Gaza that is home to more than a million Palestinians, and that, if necessary, it will do so without the support of the United States of America (U.S. ).
Netanyahu said he told US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who is visiting Israel, that "there is no way to defeat the Islamist movement Hamas without going to Rafah."
"And I told him that I hope we will do it with the support of the USA, but if we have to - we will do it ourselves," said the Israeli Prime Minister.
Blinken arrived in Israel on March 22 to discuss the war in Gaza with Netanyahu, at a time when differences of opinion on the conflict between the two allied countries have deepened.
He arrived in Israel from Cairo, as part of his sixth visit to the Middle East since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas, an organization that the US and the European Union (EU) consider terrorist.
"A large military operation in the city of Rafah would be a mistake, something we do not support," he said in Cairo, where he met with diplomats from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Armistice resolution rejected
At the same time, the Security Council of the United Nations (UN) on Friday did not accept the resolution to end the conflict in the Gaza Strip, as part of the agreement on the release of the hostages, which was proposed by the US.
The resolution for a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas did not get the "green light", after Russia and China, as permanent members, voted against it.
The resolution emphasized "the need for an immediate and permanent end to the conflict, in order to protect civilians on all sides, enable the delivery of basic humanitarian aid and alleviate suffering."
The US, a key ally of Israel, has previously vetoed Security Council resolutions on Gaza, most recently in February.
The Gaza war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants in Israel killed 1.200 people and took 253 hostages.
Since then, Israel's air and ground campaign has killed more than 31.000 Palestinians, according to health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza, while most of the population has been driven from their homes and left without food.
Much of Gaza is in ruins, with most of its 2,3 million residents displaced and facing a major humanitarian crisis.
(Radio Free Europe)
Russia and China today vetoed a US-proposed UN Security Council resolution calling for an "immediate and sustainable" ceasefire in the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza to protect civilians and allow humanitarian aid to reach more than two million people. endangered Palestinians.
In the vote in the UN Security Council, 11 out of 15 members voted "For", three "Against" - Russia, China, Algeria, and one abstained - Guyana.
Before the vote, Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vasiliy Nebenzija, said that Moscow supported the establishment of an "immediate ceasefire" but disagreed with the wording of the US draft resolution, accusing US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and UN Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield of "they are deceiving the international community" for "politicized" reasons, and that the proposed text is "hypocritical".
The proposed resolution that was put to the vote did not directly mention the release of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas during the attack on Israel on October 7 last year, which was in the draft, but it unequivocally supported diplomatic efforts to "secure a ceasefire regarding the release of all remaining hostages".
The Security Council previously adopted two resolutions regarding the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, but neither called for a ceasefire.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Thursday that the US has presented the UN Security Council with a draft resolution calling for an "immediate ceasefire related to the release of hostages" in the Gaza Strip. Blinken is on tour in the Middle East, and today in Israel, where he is trying to broker a truce.
The US, as Israel's key ally, vetoed three earlier Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire in the nearly six-month-old war, and in February objected to the term "urgent ceasefire" in a draft submitted by Algeria.
In recent weeks, however, Washington has increased pressure on Israel, insisting that Hamas extremists must immediately release the hostages kidnapped on October 7 in an attack on southern Israel.
(Beta)
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks aimed at securing a greater flow of aid to Gaza, amid increasingly strained relations between the two allies during the six-month war.
The Israeli military said it killed or captured hundreds of Hamas fighters in a five-day operation at the Al Shifa hospital complex, one of the few medical facilities even partially functioning in the north. Hamas and medical personnel deny that fighters were present there.
This is Blinken's sixth trip to the Middle East since the war broke out on Oct. 7, and before Israeli officials, he had meetings with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia and Arab foreign ministers and officials in Cairo. At the same time, meetings are being held in Doha to secure a ceasefire.
The latest visit by a top US diplomat to Israel comes at a time of strained ties between the two countries, with US President Joe Biden calling Israel's campaign in Gaza "excessive" and saying it has taken too much of a toll on civilian lives.
Before the meeting with Netanyahu, which lasted about 40 minutes, Blinken said his "one-on-one" conversation would address the growing gap between the two countries. He also met with the Israeli War Cabinet. Blinken said he would urge Netanyahu to take immediate steps to provide more aid to the densely populated enclave, where mass starvation is imminent, according to the United Nations.
The war was triggered by an attack on southern Israel by Hamas fighters who killed 1.200 and took 253 hostages. More than 32.000 Palestinians were killed in the ensuing Israeli offensive, according to Hamas health authorities in Gaza.
U.S. officials say the number of overland aid deliveries should increase rapidly and should be sustained over a long period of time. Israel says it is not limiting aid.
The United States opposes Israel's plan to launch a ground offensive in Rafah, along the Gaza-Egypt border, which Israel says is necessary to achieve its goal of crushing Hamas so that the group, designated a terrorist group by the US and the EU, cannot attack again. like the one on Israel on October 7.
The United States is expected to submit a draft resolution to the UN Security Council on Friday that will "unequivocally support ongoing diplomatic efforts aimed at securing an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as part of the hostage agreement," a spokeswoman for the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas, said in a statement. - Greenfield.
Blinken is also expected to discuss Israel's intention to launch a ground offensive on Rafah, a town on the southern edge of the enclave where more than half of Gaza's population is now living in makeshift housing.
Washington has repeatedly opposed such a plan. Netanyahu told Biden in a phone call Monday that Israel sees no other way to defeat the Hamas fighters it says are hiding there.
More than a million Palestinians are in Rafah, many of them there after fleeing other parts of Gaza in an attempt to find safety amid the war.
Friday's talks are likely to set the stage for meetings in Washington between senior Israeli and US officials next week, when the United States will present the Israelis with alternative ways to hunt down Hamas without launching an all-out attack that would endanger more civilians.
The truce talks in Qatar have centered on a proposal for a six-week ceasefire during which some 40 Israeli hostages held by Hamas would be freed, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
However, Israel is only prepared for a temporary pause in the conflict, as it wants to continue the campaign and destroy Hamas, which controls Gaza. Hamas wants a permanent end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli troops. Blinken said Thursday that the gap is closing.
In Gaza, fighting in recent days has centered on the Al Shifa hospital complex, which is also sheltering hundreds of people displaced from their homes. Israeli troops entered the facility on Monday and "combed" the sprawling compound, which they say is connected to a network of tunnels used by Hamas.
Israel said it killed hundreds of fighters and arrested more than 500 suspects in the Al Shifa operation, including 358 members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, organizations that the US, EU and UK consider terrorist.
The announcement states that three senior Islamic Jihad military commanders and two Hamas officials responsible for operations in the occupied West Bank, as well as other Hamas internal security officials, have been detained. "Those who did not surrender to our forces fought against our forces and were eliminated," Israel's rear admiral, Daniel Hagari, told a briefing late Thursday.
Hamas denies that its fighters were at the base and says that civilians were killed, and medical personnel were among those captured.
(Voice of America)
Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz today invited Turkey's deputy ambassador for a conversation, because Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin "will send Netanyahu to Allah."
"I gave instructions to the officials of the Ministry to invite the deputy Turkish ambassador for an interview in order to make a serious protest, after Erdogan's attack on Prime Minister Netanyahu, and the threat to send Netanyahu to Allah and to convey a clear message to Erdogan," Minister Katz announced on the X platform.
The minister said that "there is no god who will listen to those who support the atrocities and crimes against humanity committed by Hamas", which he said is a "barbaric friend" of Turkey.
"You who support the burning of babies, murderers, rapists and the mutilation of corpses by the criminals of Hamas are the last ones who can speak about God," the minister added with the message: "Shut up and shame yourselves!".
Erdogan said yesterday that he would send "Netanyahu to Allah to take care of him to make him miserable."
According to the Israeli media, this is just one in a series of such statements by the Turkish leader who compared Netanyahu to Hitler and Stalin and labeled Israel a terrorist state because of, as he stated, the genocide in Gaza.
Erdogan spoke in Istanbul, evaluating, among other things, that the international institutions failed the test in Gaza again, and that the Islamic world did not pass the test either.
He condemned the hypocrisy of Western countries that gave Israel weapons "for massacres and turned Gaza into the biggest cemetery in the world."
(BETA)
After five months of war in Gaza and tens of thousands of victims, twenty-seven countries of the European Union overcame their differences and agreed to call for a ceasefire.
In a statement released last night, EU leaders called for an "urgent humanitarian pause leading to a sustainable ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and the provision of humanitarian aid."
EU countries have called for a ceasefire as the UN Security Council prepares to vote today on a US-sponsored resolution declaring an immediate and sustainable ceasefire imperative in the war between Israel and Hamas.
The EU has long been divided over support for Israel and the Palestinians and the UN vote will be a new public test of their unity.
In December, two EU member states voted against an emergency humanitarian ceasefire, while four abstained.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexandre De Croix, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, said that the bloc's position is largely in line with the US position.
(BETA)
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Israel today to talk with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the war in Gaza at a time when differences between the two allied countries have increased.
Blinken arrived from Cairo as part of his sixth visit to the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7 last year, France Press reports.
Blinken is expected to emphasize the urgent need to increase humanitarian aid to the devastated Palestinian territory and appeal to Israel not to launch a major ground offensive in the Rafah, as many people fear that this will further worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
"A major military operation in Rafah would be a mistake, something we do not support," Blinken said in Cairo where he met top diplomats from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
He also said that the offensive was "not necessary to deal with Hamas" which, he said, was "necessary", the Associated Press reported.
Blinken will present Netanyahu with alternatives in discussions that will continue next week when Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant and a delegation of senior Israeli officials visit Washington separately.
Blinken's brief visit to Israel, which was only announced on Wednesday, was not part of the original plan for a Middle East tour that also included visits to Saudi Arabia.
The US secretary of state is in Israel on a day when US, Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari intelligence officials are expected to meet in Doha to discuss the details of a proposed truce in the war to free the hostages.
Qatar and, to a lesser extent, Egypt, are the main interlocutors of Hamas, which has so far rejected proposals in negotiations.
(BETA)
Chinese authorities said today that they support efforts by the United Nations Security Council (SC) to end the fighting in the Gaza Strip, without specifying whether Beijing, a permanent member of the SC with veto power, will support the US draft resolution on an immediate ceasefire.
"China supports the UN Security Council to take further responsible and meaningful steps as soon as possible, making unremitting efforts to quickly end the conflict in Gaza," Foreign Ministry spokesman Li Jian told reporters in Beijing.
The UN Security Council will vote today on a resolution proposed by the US demanding an "urgent and sustainable" ceasefire in Gaza, necessary to protect civilians and deliver aid to more than two million starving Palestinians.
(BETA)
The British and Australian foreign and defense ministers called today for an immediate end to the fighting in the Gaza Strip after a meeting in Adelaide, in the south of Australia.
In a joint statement, the ministers stressed the need to immediately end the fighting in the Gaza Strip "to enable the delivery of (humanitarian) aid and the release of the hostages."
Great Britain is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, which is due to vote today on the US resolution calling for an "immediate ceasefire".
In a joint statement, London and Canberra also condemned what they called the "large-scale, illegal and irresponsible Russian invasion of Ukraine" and called on Moscow to withdraw its military forces.
"The ministers called on all those who have close relations with Russia, especially with China, not to help Russia in any way to continue the war and to persuade it to end this illegal conflict," the joint statement said.
(BETA)
The United Nations Security Council will vote today on a resolution proposed by the US demanding an "urgent and sustainable" cease-fire in Gaza, necessary to protect civilians and to deliver aid to more than two million hungry Palestinians, the Associated Press reported.
The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, expressed optimism that the new, harsher version of the resolution will be adopted by the Council of 15 member states.
The US has vetoed several earlier Security Council resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire.
In late February, the US ambassador said it would jeopardize sensitive negotiations on a ceasefire agreement to release the hostages.
The new resolution will unequivocally support diplomatic efforts "to secure a ceasefire linked to the release of all remaining hostages" taken in the Palestinian Islamist Hamas attacks on southern Israel that have since started the war.
Russian Deputy Ambassador Dmitri Polanski stated that Moscow will not be satisfied with anything that does not call for an immediate ceasefire.
The UN Security Council adopted two resolutions on the humanitarian situation, but neither calls for a ceasefire.
Russia and China vetoed the resolution initiated by the USA at the end of October last year, which calls for a pause in the fighting and the protection of civilians and a halt to the arming of Hamas. They were not a reflection of global calls for a ceasefire.
The new resolution will be voted on at a time when US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is on his sixth visit to the Middle East since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war and is discussing the ceasefire agreement and the post-war scenario.
Negotiations on an agreement to secure the release of Gaza hostages along with a ceasefire, brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar, are expected to resume today in Doha.
Nate Evans, the spokesman of the US mission to the UN, announced today's vote that "the resolution is an opportunity for the Council to unanimously support diplomacy on the ground and to put pressure on Hamas to accept the agreement that is on the table".
Palestinian extremists killed about 1.200 people in a surprise attack in southern Israel on October 7 and kidnapped more than 250 hostages, of whom about 130 are still being held in Gaza, but not all are alive.
In Gaza, almost 32.000 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks, according to the data of the Ministry of Health there.
(BETA)
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced yesterday that the long-announced Israeli offensive on the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip would kill many Palestinian civilians and worsen the humanitarian crisis there.
Blinken announced that he will present an alternative plan for further actions to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet on Friday.
He stated this in Cairo during his sixth visit to the region during which he met with numerous leaders from the Arab world.
(BETA)
The war between Israel and Hamas - 168th day.
The United States presented a draft Security Council resolution for the first time at the United Nations, calling for an "urgent" truce in the war between Israel and Hamas, while increasingly warning of hunger in the besieged Gaza, reports Agence France-Presse.
According to the new version, seen by AFP and Reuters, there is a "need for an immediate and sustainable ceasefire" of around six weeks to protect civilians and allow the delivery of humanitarian aid. The resolution should be voted on Friday morning local time.
"For the past several weeks, the United States has been working with council members on a resolution that will unequivocally support ongoing diplomatic efforts aimed at securing an immediate ceasefire in Gaza under a hostage deal that would have freed them and contributed to a sharp increase in humanitarian aid. ", the spokesman of the US mission to the UN, Nate Evans, said on Thursday.
Washington had previously blocked the adoption of Security Council resolutions that used the word "urgent", but US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken confirmed the change of position on Wednesday and said that supporting the resolution would send a "strong message".
On Thursday, Blinken said he believed talks in Qatar could still reach a Gaza ceasefire deal.
In Cairo, Blinken met with Arab foreign ministers and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
"The negotiators are still working. The differences are narrowing and we continue to push for an agreement in Doha. There is still hard work ahead. But I believe (an agreement) is possible... I can't talk about the timing. I can only say that we are settled to do everything possible to reach an agreement," Blinken said.
He also warned that a planned Israeli ground offensive in Rafah would be a mistake.
"There is no place to shelter civilians in Rafah from danger. There is a better way to deal with the existing threat than Hamas," the US Secretary of State emphasized.
European Union leaders called on Thursday for an "urgent" humanitarian pause in Gaza that would lead to a ceasefire.
"Strong and unique statement from EU leaders on the Middle East tonight at #EUCO!", X Charles Michel, president of the European Council, wrote online.
"The EU calls for an urgent humanitarian pause leading to a sustainable ceasefire".
Ceasefire talks resumed this Sunday in Qatar, with talks of a six-week ceasefire and the release of 40 Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
However, Hamas still insists on releasing the hostages as part of the end-of-war deal, while Israel insists on only a temporary pause.
Progress in the negotiations was one of the topics of conversation between Blinken and Sisi, the State Department and the Egyptian president's office announced.
Sisi stressed the need for a ceasefire to resolve the growing humanitarian crisis and warned of the danger of a military operation in Rafah on the border with Egypt, the last safe haven for more than half of Gaza's residents.
(Voice of America)
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