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Blinken Arrives in Middle East to Renew Push for Gaza ceasefire
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks on, as U.S. President Joe Biden (not pictured) speaks about the conflict in Israel, after Hamas launched its biggest attack in decades, while making a statement about the crisis, at the White House in Washington, U.S. October 7, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv on Sunday on a Middle East tour aimed at intensifying diplomatic pressure to achieve a ceasefire deal in Gaza this week to end the bloodshed between Israel and Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
On his 10th trip to the region since the war began in October, Blinken will meet on Monday with senior Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a senior State Department official said.
After Israel, Blinken will continue onto Egypt.
The talks to strike a deal for a truce and return of hostages held in Gaza were now at an “inflection point,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters en route to Tel Aviv, adding Blinken was going to stress to all parties the importance of getting this deal over the finish line.
“We think this is a critical time,” the official said.
The mediating countries – Qatar, the United States and Egypt – have so far failed to reach a deal in months of on-off negotiations, and bloodshed continued unabated in Gaza on Sunday.
A strike killed at least 21 people including six children in Gaza on Sunday, Palestinian health authorities said.
The children and their mother were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the central town of Deir Al-Balah, health officials said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
The military said it destroyed rocket launchers used to hit Israel from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, the scene of intense fighting in recent weeks, and killed 20 Palestinian militants.
The talks towards a ceasefire are set to continue this week in Cairo, following a two-day meeting in Doha last week. Blinken will try to reach a breakthrough after the US put forward bridging proposals that the mediating countries believe would close gaps between the warring parties.
There has been increased urgency to reach a ceasefire deal amid fears of escalation across the wider region. Iran has threatened to retaliate against Israel after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31.
MOURNING AT HOSPITAL
At Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, relatives gathered around the bodies of the mother and her six children, who were wrapped in white shrouds bearing their names. The youngest was aged 18 months, their grandfather Mohammed Khattab told Reuters at the funeral.
“What was their crime? … Did they kill a Jew? Did they shoot at the Jews? Did they launch rockets at the Jews? Did they destroy the state of Israel? What did they do? What did they do to deserve this?” said Khattab.
Israel has denied targeting civilians as it hunts down Hamas terrorists, accusing the group of operating from civilian facilities including schools and hospitals. Hamas denies this.
After 10 months of war, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are living in constant desperation to find a safe place.
“We are tired of displacement. People are being pushed into narrow areas in Deir Al-Balah and Al-Mawasi, which have become pressure cookers,” Tamer Al-Burai, who lives in Deir Al-Balah with several relatives, told Reuters via a chat app. Tanks were just 1.5 km (0.9 miles) away, Burai added.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday’s orders, which included other parts of Gaza outside the humanitarian zones, had reduced the size of the “humanitarian area” designated as safe by Israeli forces to about 11% of the total area of the territory.
‘COMPLEX TALKS’
The war erupted on Oct. 7 when Hamas terrorists rampaged into Israel, killing around 1,200 people and seizing around 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel says it has killed 17,000 Hamas combatants.
Netanyahu’s office described the ceasefire talks as “complex” and said it was “conducting negotiations, not giving way in negotiations.”
Israel remained firmly committed to principles established for its security in the May 27 outline proposals, the office said in a statement following a meeting of the cabinet.
“I would like to emphasize: We are conducting negotiations and not a scenario in which we just give and give,” Netanyahu told the meeting. “There are things we can be flexible on and… things that we cannot be flexible on, which we will insist on.
“Strong military and diplomatic pressure are the way to secure the release of our hostages,” Netanyahu said.
Hamas said that optimistic U.S. comments were “deceptive” and accused Netanyahu of making new conditions in an attempt to “blow up” the negotiation.
While details of the negotiations have not been made public, there have been differences over several key issues.
The war began on Oct. 7 when Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists rampaged into Israel, killing around 1,200 people and seizing around 250 hostages. Israel responded with a military campaign in neighboring Hamas-ruled Gaza aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling the terrorist group’s military and governing capabilities.
The post Blinken Arrives in Middle East to Renew Push for Gaza ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.