President Biden also expressed guarded optimism about the direction of negotiations during a news conference closing a NATO conference in Washington, D.C.
Some American officials have grown more optimistic that a deal to release Israeli hostages held in Gaza in return for a cease-fire is at hand. But people briefed on the talks say it will be days until it is clear whether a breakthrough has been achieved because of difficulties in communication between Hamas officials in Qatar and the groupâs leaders in Gaza.
Other officials said that previous moments of hope about an agreement had been dashed by both the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Hamas. In Washington, the White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, reflected both the optimism and the caution, noting that many details still needed to be hammered out to secure a deal.
âThereâs still miles to go before we close if we are able to close,â Mr. Sullivan told reporters on Thursday. âSo I donât want to say that itâs immediately around the corner, but it does not have to be far out in the distance if everyone comes in this with the will to get it done.â
I checked AP News for any additional info. I couldnât find anything on âBiden announced a ceasefire framework,â but I did find this:
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) â Civil defense workers on Friday dug bodies out of collapsed buildings and pulled them off rubble-covered streets, as they collected dozens of Palestinians killed this week by an Israeli assault in a district of Gaza City.
LOL CN. The fact that you would helicopter in to drop your little barb just below the photo of the starving child in Gaza âis kinda damningâ no doubt.
I mean the horrors in Gaza havenât stopped even while activity in this thread has dropped. 90+ dead and 300+ injured in a place Israel said was safe and they donât even know if they got their target. Kinda damning!
Also this little note is a good reminder
On Saturday, relatives of hostages held in Gaza completed a four-day march between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The marchers aimed to heighten pressure on the Israeli government to agree to a deal with Hamas that would stop the fighting in Gaza and release their relatives.
that Israelâs policy has never been about freeing the hostages, just revenge
If there was any threat here, it was toward those flight attendants. There was no other rational fear to allay; it was just plain old racism. The flight attendants wearing those pins presumably had some knowledge of the ongoing massacres in Gaza, but their intent was not ever a factor to be considered. The complaint was what that knowledge could lead to. The same sort of logic could motivate a Brooklyn woman to harass a delivery driver because he was wearing a keffiyeh, then follow him in her car and park in the middle of the street to continue calling him a terrorist. Somebody might feel threatened by his scarf, after all.
Oh, Hamas is armed with concrete blocks now? Shoot to kill!
I mean the position of the IDF here is clear, even in their telling of events theyâre like âthis kid is a terroristâ. After all, he âtook part in the disturbancesâ that were perpetrated by âterroristsâ. This is their system working as intended.
I guess this is like if an Islamophobic mob stormed a jail to break Eddie Gallagher out and the government was like âehhh whatever maybe this is fineâ
Props to Israel for taking out a high-ranking guy without blasting a bunch of civilians in the process (seriously; their war would not be so abhorrent if they did more stuff like this and less evaporating of city blocks in Gaza). Minus points if they start world war 3 by doing it in Tehran.
Secret service with a sigh of relief they not the least competent at protecting dignitaries
âThe bomb had been hidden approximately two months ago in the guesthouse, according to five of the Middle Eastern officials. The guesthouse is run and protected by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and is part of a large compound, known as Neshat, in an upscale neighborhood of northern Tehran.â
Salim Oweis, spokesman for the UN childrenâs agency, Unicef, told the BBC the attack was âreally outrageousâ.
âAll those schools are really packed with civilians, children, mothers and families, who are taking refuge in any empty space whether itâs a school or itâs a mosque, whatever it is, even in hospital yards.â
Since the beginning of July, more than a dozen schools have been hit, according to unofficial tallies, including at one point four in four days.
Each time, in nearly identical statements, the IDF says Hamas is hiding in the schools and using them as command centres to plan and carry out attacks, something Hamas denies.
Whatever the case, these buildings are where many displaced Gazans have sought shelter, and they are paying the highest price.
