Biden wants Hamas to accept a cease-fire by Ramadan

In the midst of the Palestinian militant group’s warning that negotiations for a truce and captive release cannot continue “indefinitely,” US President Joe Biden called on Hamas on Tuesday to accept a ceasefire agreement for Gaza before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

In a coordinated effort with Egypt and France, US and Jordanian aircraft once again airdropped food supplies into the beleaguered territory of 2.4 million people as starvation poses a danger to the Gazan people.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that children are starving to death in two hospitals in northern Gaza, while US Vice President Kamala Harris has voiced “deep concern about the humanitarian conditions in Gaza”.

In Cairo, representatives from Hamas and the US have been in talks with Qatari and Egyptian intermediaries on a six-week ceasefire, the release of hundreds of Palestinian detainees in return for dozens of remaining hostages, and the delivery of assistance to Gaza.

Close to Egypt’s intelligence agencies, Al-Qahera News said on Wednesday that the negotiations will continue for a fourth day in a row.

After senior diplomat Antony Blinken encouraged Hamas to accept a “immediate ceasefire,” Biden issued a warning, asking the group to consent to a ceasefire by Ramadan, which starts early next week.

“Right now, it’s in the hands of Hamas,” the US president said to reporters in Maryland.

“There’s got to be a ceasefire because Ramadan — if we get into circumstances where this continues to Ramadan, Israel and Jerusalem could be very, very dangerous.”

He did not provide any details, but last week the United States pressed Israel to let Muslims to pray during Ramadan at the volatile Al-Aqsa mosque complex in Jerusalem.

According to the Israeli authorities, during Ramadan, Muslim pilgrims would be able to enter Al-Aqsa “in comparable numbers to those in previous years.”

List of hostages

Israel has not participated in the Cairo negotiations so far. According to Israeli media, its representatives left the negotiations after Hamas refused to provide a list of the country’s active captives.

Details on the detainees, however, “were not mentioned in any documents or proposals circulated during the negotiation process,” senior Hamas official Bassem Naim told AFP.

An official for Hamas in Beirut, Osama Hamdan, said that his organization would “not allow the path of negotiations to be open indefinitely”.

According to Israel, 31 of the 250 hostages that Hamas terrorists took during their historic October 7 attack—which started the war—have been murdered, but 130 of them are still believed to be in Gaza.

During their meeting, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan decided that “the release of sick, wounded, elderly, and women hostages would result in an immediate ceasefire in Gaza over a period of at least six weeks”.

According to a White House summary of the conference, the first phase of a ceasefire would allow “a surge of humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza, and provide time and space to secure more enduring arrangements and sustained calm”.

Hunger is imminent.

As circumstances worsen and starvation approaches in the encircled Palestinian territories, Israel is coming under growing pressure from the United States, its principal partner.

On Monday, Harris visited Israeli War Cabinet member Benny Gantz in Washington. The WHO said that 10 children had died of malnutrition at the Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals over the weekend during an assistance trip.

People reported discovering decaying remains strewn throughout streets lined with demolished houses in Khan Yunis, the capital city of Gaza’s southern region.

“We want to survive and eat. Look around our residences. How am I to blame, a lone, defenseless, unemployed individual in this destitute nation?” With burned palms, Nader Abu Shanab pointed to the debris.

In a cooperative effort with Jordan, American cargo aircraft airdropped over 36,000 meals into Gaza on Tuesday; according to Jordan, French and Egyptian planes were also involved.

The World Food Programme of the UN said that an assistance convoy was turned away by Israeli military at a crossing that led to northern Gaza, and that it was subsequently plundered “by desperate people”.

Approximately 1,160 people were killed in the Hamas onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, the majority of whom being civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli numbers.

The health ministry in the zone held by Hamas reports that over 30,600 individuals have died as a result of Israel’s retaliatory operation, the majority of them were women and children.

UN hostilities

The way that accusations of sexual assault by Hamas terrorists after the October attack were handled has caused tensions to escalate between Israel and the UN.

In a report released on Monday, the UN said that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that rapes had occurred and that captives who had been brought to Gaza had also been raped.

Shortly after the report’s publication, Israel recalled its UN Ambassador, Gilad Erdan, and accused the UN of responding to the allegations too slowly.

Violence has been caused by the conflict across the area, with Israeli troops and Lebanon’s Hezbollah organization engaging in almost daily gun exchanges.

The US Navy said on Tuesday that it had shot down three drones and intercepted a missile that was aimed at one of its warships by Huthi rebels in Yemen’s Red Sea.

Iran-supported For months, Huthis have been assaulting ships in the Red Sea, claiming they are targeting Israeli-affiliated ships to aid the Palestinians in Gaza.

The Middle East has become more incensed by Israel’s Gaza assault, which has fueled bloodshed in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and other countries supported by Iran.