Blinken seeks progress in Gaza truce deal

CAIRO, Aug 20 (Reuters/AFP): US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pushed for progress towards a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal as he visited Egypt on Tuesday, but major areas of dispute are still to be resolved in talks planned for later this week.
Blinken flew to Egypt from Tel Aviv, where he said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had accepted a US "bridging proposal" aimed at narrowing the gaps between the two sides after talks last week paused without a breakthrough. He urged Hamas to also accept the proposal as the basis for more talks.
The Palestinian militant group has not explicitly rejected the proposal, but said in a statement it overturns what was previously agreed, without specifying how, and accused Israel and its US ally of spinning out negotiations in bad faith.
In Egypt, Blinken met President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, whose country has been helping mediate the on-off Gaza talks for months along with the US and Qatar. Sisi said after the meeting that it was time to put an end to the war and warned of the conflict expanding in the region.
At stake is the fate of tiny, crowded Gaza, where Israel's military campaign has killed more than 40,000 people since October according to Palestinian health authorities, and of the remaining hostages being held there.
The war in Gaza began on Oct 7, 2023, when Hamas gunmen stormed into Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and abducting about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
On Tuesday, Israel's military said it had recovered the bodies of six hostages from southern Gaza. According to Israeli authorities, 109 hostages now remain in the Palestinian territory, of whom around a third are believed to be dead.
In Gaza, Israeli forces battled Hamas-led militants in central and southern areas, and Palestinian health authorities said at least 21 people had been killed early on Tuesday in Israeli strikes, including on a school housing displaced people.
Israel's military said it had struck Hamas militants embedded in the school.
Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said on Tuesday it was still waiting for polio vaccines to arrive after the disease was discovered in the territory, where most people now live in tents or shelters without proper sanitation. It echoed a call by the UN last week for a ceasefire to allow the vaccination campaign.
Blinken has called the latest push for a deal "probably the best, possibly the last opportunity", and said his meeting with Netanyahu was constructive, adding it was incumbent on Hamas to accept the bridging proposal.
Officials from the US, Hamas, Israel, Egypt or Qatar have not spelled out what is in the proposal or how it differs from previous versions. "There are questions of implementation and making sure that it's clearly understood what each side will do to carry out its commitments," Blinken said on Monday.
Gaza's civil defence agency said an Israeli strike hit a school in Gaza City on Tuesday, killing at least seven people, while the Israeli military said it struck a Hamas command centre.
The bodies of five men and two children were pulled out of the building "after an Israeli plane dropped a bomb on the second floor of the (Mustafa Hafiz School) building housing thousands of displaced people," agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
He said 15 people were wounded in the strike.
AFP was unable to independently verify the death toll at the school, which the Israeli military said was targeted because it housed a Hamas command and control centre.
"Hamas terrorists used the command and control centre to plan and execute attacks against IDF (Israeli army) troops and the State of Israel," the military said in a statement.
It said it carried out a "precise strike on terrorists who were operating" inside the school.
Earlier this month, the military had struck the Al-Tabieen School in Gaza City, which according to the civil defence agency killed 93 Palestinians, while the military said 31 militants died.
In recent weeks, the military has struck several schools across Gaza, primarily in Gaza City, accusing them of housing Hamas command centres, which the Palestinian militant group denies.
Tens of thousands of displaced people have taken refuge in schools since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7 after Palestinian militants attacked southern Israel.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also seized 251 people, 105 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.