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At least 19 people were killed by Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip overnight, heightening tensions as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in the region on Sunday to further efforts to broker a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas.
The top American diplomat’s latest trip to the Middle East comes days after the U.S. presented a “bridging proposal” meant to resolve the key differences remaining between Hamas and Israel. Blinken is due to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials during his visit.
One of the strikes by the Israeli military overnight hit a home in the town of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, killing a woman and her six children, the Associated Press reported. The town was previously targeted on Aug. 10, with a strike killing a man’s three-day-old twins and wife while he went to register their birth.
Blinken, along with fellow mediators from Egypt and Qatar, proposed a deal on Friday that would see the hostages from the Oct. 7 attack released and a cease-fire put in place. U.S. officials said they were confident the agreement would be closed in the coming days, with U.S. President Joe Biden telling reporters “we are closer to a deal than we have ever been.”
Hamas, however, has poured cold water on that assessment, telling the BBC and other outlets that no progress has been made and mediators are “selling illusions.”
Netanyahu’s office said it is cautiously optimistic “that the heavy pressure on Hamas by Washington and the other mediators will remove its opposition to the American proposal and will lead to a breakthrough in the talks.”
The U.S. proposal has not been publicly shared and it’s unclear which aspects Hamas feels it can’t accept. The deal allegedly calls for a three-phase process during which Hamas would release its Oct. 7 hostages and Israel would release Palestinian prisoners, along with withdrawing its forces from Gaza.
