Palestinians hope Blinken visit can deliver Gaza truce before Rafah assault | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Get the Paper
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Wednesday
July 23, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Get the Paper
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 2025
Palestinians hope Blinken visit can deliver Gaza truce before Rafah assault

Hamas-Israel war

Reuters
05 February, 2024, 05:25 pm
Last modified: 05 February, 2024, 05:27 pm

Related News

  • UK, France and other nations call for an immediate end to war in Gaza
  • Israel sends tanks into Gaza's Deir al-Balah, raising concerns among hostage families
  • Hamas says no interim truce possible without work toward permanent ceasefire deal
  • France says UN conference to work on post-war Gaza, Palestinian state recognition
  • One in 10 children screened in UNRWA clinics are malnourished, UN Palestinian refugee agency says

Palestinians hope Blinken visit can deliver Gaza truce before Rafah assault

Reuters
05 February, 2024, 05:25 pm
Last modified: 05 February, 2024, 05:27 pm
Palestinian children wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen amid shortages of food supplies, as the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 5, 2024. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
Palestinian children wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen amid shortages of food supplies, as the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 5, 2024. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

Palestinians huddling under bombardment in Gaza said on Monday they hoped a visit to the region by the US secretary of state would finally deliver a truce, in time to head off a threatened new Israeli assault on the last refuge at the enclave's edge.

Antony Blinken was in the air headed to the Middle East for his first trip since Washington brokered an offer with Israeli input for the first extended ceasefire of the war.

The offer, delivered to Hamas last week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators, still awaits a reply from militants who say they want more guarantees that it will bring an end to the four-month-old war in the Gaza Strip.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

The US diplomatic push comes at a time when Washington is also trying to prevent further escalation elsewhere in the region, after two days of US air strikes against pro-Iranian armed groups across the Middle East.

Meanwhile, Israel has pressed on with its offensive in some of the war's most intense combat, and threatened a new ground assault on Rafah, a small city where more than half of Gaza's people are now penned against the enclave's southern border abutting Egypt, mainly sleeping rough in makeshift tents.

The ceasefire proposal, described by sources close to the talks, would see a truce for at least 40 days, while militants would free remaining hostages from among the 253 they captured in the deadly Oct. 7 raid into Israel that precipitated the war.

It would let in aid to alleviate Gaza's humanitarian crisis and let Gaza's 2.3 million people return to homes abandoned during a war that has laid waste to much of the enclave. The only previous truce so far lasted one week.

"We want the war to end and we want to go back home, this is all that we want at this stage," said Yamen Hamad, 35, a father of four reached by messaging app at a UN school in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. The area is one of the few where Israeli tanks have yet to advance and is now jammed with tens of thousands of displaced families.

"All we do is listen to the news through small radios and view the internet looking for hope. We hope that Blinken will tell (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu enough is enough, and we hope our factions decide in the best interest of our people."

FIGHTING IN KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA CITY

In one of the biggest battles of the war, Israeli tanks have been advancing for the past two weeks in Khan Younis, the main southern city, which was already housing hundreds of thousands of people who fled other areas. Fighting has also resurged in Gaza City in the north of the Strip, in areas Israel claimed to have subdued in the first two months of the war.

The Israeli military said on Monday its forces had killed dozens of Palestinian fighters in combat in areas in northern, central and southern Gaza over the last 24 hours.

Palestinians described heavy fighting in Gaza City, particularly its western areas close to the Mediterranean shore, which had come under bombardment from Israeli warships.

Palestinian health officials said they had recovered the bodies of 14 people killed in a strike on Khan Younis overnight. They have said repeatedly in recent days that rescuers are unable to reach many of the dead and wounded in the city.

Gaza authorities say more than 27,000 Palestinians have been confirmed killed in Israel's assault, with thousands more dead feared unrecovered in the rubble. Israel says it has killed 10,000 gunmen and lost 226 soldiers in Gaza fighting, after 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7.

After Israel announced last week that it was preparing for a potential ground assault on Rafah, international aid agencies and the UN said they feared the humanitarian consequences would be catastrophic, with no place left for residents to flee.

Gazans fear that a thrust into Rafah would drive them out of the enclave once and for all, into Egypt which rejects any attempt to force them across.

An Israeli official told Reuters that the military would coordinate with Egypt, and seek ways of evacuating most of the displaced people northward, ahead of any Rafah ground sweep.

A ceasefire now could head off such an assault, but would mean Israel pausing without having achieved its stated aim of annihilating Hamas. Some far-right members of Netanyahu's cabinet have said they would quit rather than back such a deal.

Netanyahu says he is committed to "total victory", and that any pause in fighting would only be temporary as long as Hamas fighters are still at large. Hamas says it will not agree a truce or free its hostages unless it receives guarantees that Israel will pull out of Gaza and end the war.

The exiled Hamas chief, Ismail Haniyeh, said last week he would travel to Cairo to deliver his response to the ceasefire proposal, but he has yet to turn up there and Hamas has set no timetable for his trip.

A Palestinian official with knowledge of the negotiations told Reuters the Hamas response could come "soon", but it was up to Blinken to nudge Netanyahu to make the concessions that would get the ceasefire deal over the line.

"Netanyahu doesn't want to end the war. He wants a hostage release deal. That is far short of what our people will accept," the official said in an interview over a messaging app.

"Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and other factions want guarantees the occupation will be committed to ending the war on Gaza and pull out its forces from there. Those are the key demands," he said. "The Americans can restrain Netanyahu if they want to end the war and succeed in mediation."

World+Biz / Middle East

Palestine / Israel-Hamas / Blinken / Rafah / Gaza Truce

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • The Government Seal of Bangladesh
    Govt mulls allowing trade unions with 20 workers, industry leaders warn of disorder
  • Photo: CA Press Wing
    Stronger stance needed on maintaining law and order: Political parties to CA
  • Volunteers collect and gather parts of the wrecked plane from the Milestone School and College grounds on Tuesday, a day after the devastating aircraft crash. Photo: Mehedi Hasan/TBS
    Grief, angst and anger

MOST VIEWED

  • Screengrab/Video collected from Facebook
    CCTV footage shows how Air Force jet nosedived after technical malfunction
  • ISPR clarifies crashed plane was battle aircraft, not training jet
    ISPR clarifies crashed plane was battle aircraft, not training jet
  • The jet plane charred after crash on 21 July at the Milestone school premises. Photo: Mehedi Hasan/TBS
    Milestone plane crash: Death toll rises to 31 as nine more succumb to injuries
  • Students and police clash at Milestone School and College on 22 July 2025. Photo: TBS
    Protesting Milestone students clash with police, besiege law and education advisers
  • Photo: Syed Zakir Hossain/TBS
    Secretariat protest: 75 injured in police-protester clash over edu adviser's resignation for delaying HSC rescheduling
  • Aerial view of the Milestone school premises where the crash took place on 21 July. Photo: Olid Ebna Shah/ TBS
    ‘Why here?’: Concerns expressed over airbase inside city

Related News

  • UK, France and other nations call for an immediate end to war in Gaza
  • Israel sends tanks into Gaza's Deir al-Balah, raising concerns among hostage families
  • Hamas says no interim truce possible without work toward permanent ceasefire deal
  • France says UN conference to work on post-war Gaza, Palestinian state recognition
  • One in 10 children screened in UNRWA clinics are malnourished, UN Palestinian refugee agency says

Features

Photo: Mehedi Hasan/TBS

Aggrieved nation left with questions as citizens rally to help at burn institute

17h | Panorama
Photo: TBS

Mourning turns into outrage as Milestone students seek truth and justice

12h | Panorama
Illustration: TBS

Uttara, Jatrabari, Savar and more: The killing fields that ran red with July martyrs’ blood

1d | Panorama
Despite all the adversities, girls from the hill districts are consistently pushing the boundaries to earn repute and make the nation proud. Photos: TBS

Ghagra: Where dreams rise from dust for Bangladesh women's football

2d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

32 killed in warplane crash in Milestone, live from Burn Institute

32 killed in warplane crash in Milestone, live from Burn Institute

8m | TBS Today
What information did the director of the NBPSI give about the admitted patients?

What information did the director of the NBPSI give about the admitted patients?

10h | TBS Today
India is sending specialist doctors, nurses and equipment to treat burn victims

India is sending specialist doctors, nurses and equipment to treat burn victims

1h | TBS Today
What is discussed at the Chief Advisor's meeting?

What is discussed at the Chief Advisor's meeting?

10h | TBS Today
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net