US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is continuing his tour in El Alamein, Egypt, on Tuesday, August 20, aimed at convincing the warring parties in the Gaza Strip to accept a ceasefire accompanied by an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
The head of American diplomacy arrives from Tel Aviv, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to him, “confirmed that Israel accepts the compromise plan” of Washington for a truce. Antony Blinken, who called on the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas to “do the same”, is to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi and his counterpart Badr Abdelatty.
Key facts:
⇒ Israeli army announces recovery of six bodies of dead hostages in Gaza
⇒ Gaza truce: “Hamas is backtracking,” says Joe Biden
⇒ Hezbollah announces targeting military positions in the occupied Golan
Israeli army announces recovery of six bodies of dead hostages in Gaza
The Israeli army announced on Tuesday morning that it had recovered the bodies of six hostages who died in the Gaza Strip, during an operation conducted jointly with internal intelligence. The bodies, the army detailed, are Alex Dancyg, Chaim Peri, Yagev Buchshtab, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, all already announced dead by the army in recent months, and that of Avraham Munder, whose kibbutz, Nir Oz, announced his death on Tuesday. A former hostage had told AFP that the six men were held together in a tunnel after their kidnapping by Hamas on October 7.
“Hamas is going into reverse,” Biden says
Joe Biden said Tuesday that Hamas was “backtracking” on negotiations over a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, saying a deal was “still possible.”
“Israel says they can do it,” the American president also declared, who answered a few questions from the press at the Chicago airport, after speaking at the Democratic convention.
Hezbollah announces targeting of military positions in occupied Golan
Lebanese Hezbollah announced on Tuesday that it had launched several salvos of rockets against Israeli army positions on the occupied and annexed Golan Heights, in “response” to strikes that targeted it the day before in eastern Lebanon.
The pro-Iranian formation said its fighters had launched “intense rocket barrages” against two military positions on the Golan “in response to the Israeli enemy’s attack on the Bekaa region.” On Monday evening, Israel targeted Hezbollah arms depots in the region.
Journalist killed in southern Gaza Strip, Israeli army blamed
The Hamas government’s health ministry in Gaza and a Palestinian media outlet announced on Monday the death of a journalist who they said was hit the day before by Israeli gunfire in the southern Gaza Strip. “Ibrahim Muhareb’s body was taken to Nasser hospital” in Khan Younis on Monday, the ministry said.
The PDN (Palestinian Daily News) website, for which Ibrahim Mouhareb worked, announced his death “after gunfire […] Israeli occupation forces fired on him and a group of journalists” in the Hamad-city neighborhood of Khan Younis.