Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will be headed back to the Middle East for his first official state visit since the Biden administration helped broker a deal for the first extended ceasefire.
Palestinians inspect the destruction caused by Israeli strikes in Wadi Gaza, in the central Gaza Strip on November 28, 2023, amid a truce in battles between Israel and Hamas. A truce between Israel and Hamas entered a fifth day on November 28 after the deal was extended to allow further releases of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
Palestinians are hoping that the U.S. secretary of state will use his political might to help render a lasting truce that will spare civilians from bearing the brunt of the Israeli offensive.
Israel has pressed forward into a new ground assault on the small city of Rafah, where those seeking refuge from the violence are trapped between the IDF and the border with Egypt.
The current ceasefire deal on the table, according to Reuters, would involve a truce of at least 40 days, and the freeing of Israeli hostages captured by Hamas during the Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel that prompted the current round of violence.
The deal would also allow additional humanitarian aid to Gaza and the West Bank. The prior ceasefire only 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 man with four children, contacted via messaging app, was located at a U.N. school in Deir al-Balah, located in central Gaza. .
"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."
What Is Khan Younis?
The city of Khan Younis has become the scene for one of the biggest battles of the war thus far. Israel tanks rolled into the city in the city of hundreds of thousands of refugees from other areas over the past two weeks.
Renewed fighting has also broken out in Gaza City as well in areas Israel had previously stated were "subdued" during the first two months of the war.
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 authorities in Gaza say more than 27,000 Palestinians have been killed thus far, with thousands more feared dead amid the rubble of Israeli aerial and naval bombardments.
