Blinken presses Hamas to say 'yes' to ceasefire
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STORY: BLINKEN: "If you want a ceasefire, press Hamas to say yes. ." U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday shuttled between Cairo and Jerusalem pushing a proposed truce in Gaza. Blinken met first with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Afterward, he told reporters that the greatest obstacle in reaching a ceasefire was that Hamas had yet to accept the terms of a deal outlined by U.S. President Joe Biden last month. "So, the only party that has not accepted, the only party that has not said yes, is Hamas. That’s who everyone is waiting on. That’s who the Palestinians in Gaza are waiting on. It’s who the Israelis are waiting on. It’s who the hostage and the hostages' families are waiting on." Blinken then flew to Israel, where he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In a statement, Netanyahu said his country remained "committed to total victory." A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that Blinken's comments were biased toward Israel. :: Released October 7, 2023 The war has now entered its ninth month, since Hamas-led fighters killed 1,200 people and took some 250 others hostage in a rampage through southern Israel. In response, Israel launched an assault on the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians and reduced most of the enclave to wasteland. :: Source: Israeli Military Israel's military on Monday released video it said showed scenes from a weekend operation that resulted in the rescue of four hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7 and recovered from the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip. :: June 9, 2024 Palestinian officials said the operation, which involved airstrikes and ground troops, killed 274 people, making it one of the deadliest assaults of the war. Anas Alyan picked through the ruins of his home. "This is our house. We were safely sitting in it and suddenly, several consecutive explosions happened. We did not know what was happening. I was sitting upstairs in my apartment, I went down to my parents' floor and found all my relatives thrown because of the Jewish (Israeli) soldiers. They were firing at us with mortar rockets, at the living room. All my relatives were wounded. There was also a lot of gunfire - F16, quadcopters, drones. It was horrible. Soldiers in this area were all firing." Israeli forces said they were aware of under 100 Palestinians killed and did not know how many were combatants. :: Source: Hamas Armed Wing Hamas's military wing released this video on Sunday purporting to show its fighters battling Israeli tanks in the streets of Rafah, in southern Gaza. Israeli forces began an operation in the city last month despite White House pressure to hold off. :: June 7, 2024 Around half of the Gaza Strip's 2.3 million people had been sheltering in Rafah before last month's assault, and a million have had to flee again.
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