GAZA: Hopes were dwindling Thursday for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where fighting raged despite US pressure on the Zionist entity and Palestinian group Hamas to reach an agreement. After more than 10 months of war, officials from the United States and mediators Egypt and Qatar had been set to meet in Cairo for a new round of negotiations this week, but confirmation was still pending.

The war has devastated Gaza, displaced nearly all its population at least once and triggered a humanitarian crisis in the besieged Palestinian territory. Diplomatic efforts have intensified to try to avert a wider war following the high-profile killings of two Iran-backed fighters that sparked threats of reprisals from Tehran and its allies, which blamed the Zionist entity.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday headed home from his latest tour of the Middle East, aimed at finalizing a ceasefire, without a breakthrough. In a phone call later, President Joe Biden pushed Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a deal, stressing “the urgency of bringing the ceasefire and hostage release deal to closure”, the White House said.

It added that Biden also reassured Netanyahu of the efforts of the United States — the Zionist entity’s main ally and weapons supplier — to support it

against threats from Iran and its proxies. Blinken on Thursday spoke with the Qatari Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani after the two were unable to meet during the US top diplomat’s brief stop in Doha earlier this week.

They discussed the latest push towards a truce and “affirmed that no party in the region should take actions to undermine efforts to reach a deal”, the State Department said. A main sticking point remains Hamas’ long-standing demand for a “complete” Zionist withdrawal from Gaza. Netanyahu, whose hard-right coalition relies on the support of members opposed to a truce, said the Zionist entity insists on keeping forces on the Palestinian territory’s border with Egypt.

The Zionist entity “securing the southern border” of Gaza was crucial for achieving the war’s objectives, his office said late Wednesday, rejecting as “incorrect” media reports that “Netanyahu has agreed that (the Zionist entity) will withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor”. Government spokesman David Mencer later called the Gaza-Egypt border strip, which the Zionist entity says militants use to smuggle weapons, a “Hamas lifeline”.

During his regional tour, Blinken said Netanyahu had accepted a US “bridging proposal” for a truce that “is very clear on the schedule and the locations” of the Zionist withdrawal. Without mentioning Philadelphi directly, Blinken also said that Washington “does not accept any long-term occupation of Gaza by (the Zionist entity)”.

Zionist newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, citing “officials knowledgeable about the negotiations”, reported that “the Americans understood the mistake” Blinken had made in his remarks about Netanyahu accepting the proposal. The daily said “the chances for a deal are slim” but attempts were being made to organize talks in Cairo on Friday and Saturday, with US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk already sent there.

Hamas on Sunday said the US proposal “responds to Netanyahu’s conditions” and accused him of “obstructing an agreement”. Some analysts and critics in the Zionist entity have also accused Netanyahu of prolonging the war. In its statement, Hamas cited Netanyahu’s “insistence on continuing to occupy” the Philadelphi Corridor as well as the Netzarim junction, which sits at a strategic point between northern and southern Gaza.

Witnesses on Thursday reported clashes between Zionist forces and Palestinian fighters in Netzarim. Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the Gaza civil defense agency, said “five bodies were pulled from under the rubble” of a house in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza’s main city, hit by Zionist bombardment on Thursday. “The bombing never stops,” said 32-year-old Tahani Abu Sherbi, a mother of four, in central Gaza. Although the Zionist entity has issued an evacuation order for the area, “we decided not to move despite the danger,” she told AFP. “We are tired of displacement.”

Witnesses said they saw heavy Zionist shelling in Khan Yunis and air strikes in southern and central Gaza, while the military said Israeli troops intensified operations around Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah further north. Civil defense rescuers said that a Zionist strike Wednesday killed at least three people in a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City, which the military said was used by militants. The United Nations says the Zionist entity has struck at least 23 schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza since July 4.

The Zionist military campaign has killed 40,265 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry, mostly women and children. The Palestinian health ministry in the occupied West Bank said three people were killed in Zionist strikes on a refugee camp Thursday. A spokesman for the Ramallah-based ministry said in a statement that the three were killed “during an occupation strike on a house” in the Tulkarem camp in the northern West Bank. The United Nations said that in August, Zionist air strikes in the West Bank killed an average of one Palestinian per day. – AFP