UN’s truce plan fails

GAZA: US AND ISRAEL HOLD TENSE TALKS AS TROOPS SET TO ENTER RAFAH

Israel plans to send troops into Gaza’s Rafah even without US support, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Antony Blinken yesterday, as Washington failed to pass a UN resolution on an “immediate” ceasefire.

Almost six months of Israeli bombardment since Hamas’ October attack has brought Gaza to its knees with many thousands killed, infrastructure shattered and widespread warnings that its 2.4 million people are on the verge of famine.

Washington has repeatedly blocked ceasefire resolutions at the United Nations Security Council but tried to pass a text mentioning an “immediate ceasefire as part of a hostage deal”.

World leaders, including staunch allies of Israel, backed the renewed diplomatic push, but China and Russia vetoed the US text after Moscow complained that the language was too weak and put no pressure on Israel.

Secretary of State Blinken has been on a whistlestop tour of the region to support truce talks in Qatar that involve indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas officials.

The violence meanwhile continued, with Israeli forces raiding Gaza’s largest hospital complex for a fifth day, claiming to have killed more than 150 “terrorists” in the ongoing operation Hamas has labelled “criminal”.

Israel also continued to pound the southern city of Rafah and its surroundings, where most of Gaza’s population has taken shelter.

Standing in the ruins of a partly destroyed house in Rafah, resident Nabil Abu Thabet said “innocent civilians” had been pulled out “in pieces”.

“People were targeted at 1 am, when they were asleep,” he said.

Netanyahu said he had told Blinkenyesterday that there was “no way to defeat Hamas” without invading Rafah, a plan that has provoked international concern for civilians trapped there.

According to Netanyahu, in a statement after meeting Blinken, “I told him I hope to do that with the support of the United States, but if we need to, we will do it alone”.

At the UN Security Council, permanent members Russia and China vetoed the US draft resolution, but French President Emmanuel Macron later said diplomats would keep pushing for agreement on a ceasefire call.

Russia’s ambassador Vasily Nebenzia said the US text would “ensure the impunity of Israel, whose crimes are not even assessed in the draft”. –