Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted a U.S. proposal that would bridge remaining differences in achieving a Gaza ceasefire, and urged Hamas to do the same. Hamas called out the hypocrisy of Blinken’s announcement and repeated its demand that any deal must result in a permanent end to Israel’s war on Gaza, and accused the U.S. of “merely buying time for Israel to continue its genocide” by watering down a previous agreement. Despite the news from Blinken, who is now in Egypt to garner support for the deal, Israel’s carnage in Gaza continues unabated. The U.N. warned Monday Israel is now “relentlessly” striking the besieged territory, with almost all Gazans displaced and some resorting to living among the rubble amid Israel’s barrage of evacuation orders.
In Khan Younis, distraught family members gathered at the Nasser Hospital morgue after Israeli strikes earlier today killed at least 11 people, including children. This is researcher and professor Iyad Abu Mustafa, speaking outside the hospital.
Iyad Abu Mustafa: “The occupying state continues to carry out brutal operations day after day. Yesterday, 18 martyrs were killed, and this morning, more than 10 martyrs. The number of martyrs has reached more than 44,000 martyrs. This escalation indicates a crime of genocide, a well-organized crime. Every bloodbath is a crime in itself. There is no country in the world that is able to stop these serious violations against the Palestinian people. The United States is still taking the neutral stance and is blindly biased toward the occupying Israeli state.”
Meanwhile, Israel says it retrieved the bodies of six hostages from Khan Younis overnight. The families of hostages have been calling on Netanyahu to work toward a ceasefire in Gaza for months.