US proposes ceasefire as Gaza starves
THE US has circulated for the first time a draft UN resolution calling for an “immediate” ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, as warnings grow of famine in besieged Gaza.
Washington vetoed previous UN Security Council texts on the nearly six-month war, objecting even last month to the term “immediate” in a draft submitted by Algeria, but US top diplomat Antony Blinken confirmed the shift in position this week.
Blinken, who was meeting five Arab foreign ministers in Egypt yesterday, stressed that any immediate truce must be linked to the release of hostages snatched by Palestinian militants during the October 7 attack that set off the war.
The Israeli bombardment of Gaza continued overnight with the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory saying at least 70 people had been killed, pushing the overall toll towards 32 000.
Gaza’s biggest hospital has emerged as a major flashpoint after Israel accused Palestinian militants of hiding out there and launched a days-long raid, which it said yesterday had killed more than 140 fighters.
Hamas said the ongoing attack on the vast Al-Shifa hospital complex, crowded with patients and people seeking refuge, was a crime.
Gaza’s civilian infrastructure has largely collapsed and UN agencies are warning that the territory’s 2.4 million people are on the brink of famine.
A new version circulated by the US stressed “the need for an immediate and durable ceasefire” to protect civilians and allow aid into the territory.
No vote has been scheduled on the text but Blinken said that support for the resolution would send a “strong message”. The US secretary of state, whose diplomatic push is running alongside mediation efforts in Qatar, will land in Israel today.
The Qatar talks were considering a Hamas proposal for a six-week ceasefire to allow hostages to be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and increased aid deliveries.
But a senior Hamas official based in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, said Israel’s response had been “largely negative”.
The US and Israel are also engaged in a diplomatic tug-of-war over the southern Gaza city of Rafah, the last part of the territory still largely untouched by Israeli ground troops.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled to the city to escape fighting elsewhere, but Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted a ground incursion is the only way to finally root out Hamas.
US officials said they supported Netanyahu’s goal but wanted Israel to try strategies short of a potentially catastrophic invasion of an area where around 1.5 million people are hemmed in by the Egyptian border.
The bloodiest-ever Gaza war broke out after Hamas’s attacks resulted in about 1160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according Israeli official figures. Militants also seized about 250 hostages, of whom Israel believes 130 remain in Gaza, including 33 who are presumed dead.
Israel’s military has waged a retaliatory offensive against Hamas that has killed 31 988 people, most of them women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
At Al-Shifa hospital, the Israeli army said hundreds of suspects had been detained since the raid began on Monday including “dozens of senior terrorists and those with key positions”.
Israel’s army said yesterday “over 140 terrorists have been eliminated” since the start of the raid on Monday.
As famine warnings escalated, Cyprus was holding an international conference yesterday on its efforts to establish a “maritime corridor” to get desperately needed food into Gaza.
The Saudi government announced it would donate $40 million (R753m) to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
Many of Israel’s allies suspended funding for the agency after Israel accused 12 of its 13000 Gaza staff of taking part in the October 7 attack. Several have since resumed their contributions.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini warned this week that “siege, hunger and diseases will soon become the main killer in Gaza”.