US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has remarked that the United States plans to introduce “strategies for governing the Gaza Strip” in the upcoming weeks, following the cessation of Israeli hostilities.
During a joint press conference with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Wednesday, Blinken noted that Hamas’ reaction to the mediators fell short of the affirmative answer anticipated by the United States. He stated: “While the divergences in the stances of the two parties are potentially reconcilable, this does not guarantee that they will be resolved. The opportunity for a ceasefire existed 12 days prior; however, it was not realized due to Hamas’ failure to provide an affirmative response.”
Corroborating this narrative, two Egyptian security officials informed Reuters that Hamas is seeking written assurances from the United States encompassing a lasting ceasefire and the retraction of Israeli military presence from the Gaza Strip as prerequisites for consenting to a truce proposition endorsed by the US.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the Israeli occupation forces committed three massacres against families in the Gaza Strip during the past twenty-four hours, including 38 deaths and 100 injuries to hospitals, raising the toll of the Israeli aggression since October 7 to 37,202 deaths and 84,932. infection.
The Ministry of Health warned that hospitals, health centers and the only oxygen station in the Gaza Governorate (north of the Strip) would stop due to the continued control and closure of the crossings by the Israeli occupation army and the lack of fuel. The ministry said that the oxygen station in Gaza Governorate is “the only source that supplies health facilities and chronic patients with oxygen.”
In response to the Israeli attacks on civilians, the Al-Quds Brigades, the military arm of the Islamic Jihad movement, announced that it targeted Israeli occupation soldiers with a pre-prepared ground bomb in Al-Qara, Saad Mosque, east of the Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City.
In a second statement, it announced the bombing of a command and control center belonging to the Israeli occupation army on the supply line to the Netzarim axis, south of Gaza City, with a missile salvo (107). The Al-Quds Brigades also announced the bombing of the transmission towers at the Israeli site of Nahal Oz, east of Gaza City, with a barrage of regular mortar shells.
For its part, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said that its resistors were attacking the Israeli occupation forces penetrating east of the Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City with mortar shells.
