Israel kills leading Palestinian militant as Gaza ceasefire talks fail

Israel killed a senior fighter from Fatah's armed wing in an attack on Lebanon on Wednesday, prompting the Palestinian movement to accuse Israel of trying to “start a regional war.”

Fatah, the Palestinian movement based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said Khalil Maqdah was killed in an attack near the southern Lebanese city of Sidon.

The Israeli military said it had arrested the brother of Mounir Maqdahwho heads the Lebanese branch of Fatah's armed wing. She accused both of “directing attacks and smuggling weapons into the West Bank” and of collaborating with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

In response, the Fatah movement of the slain militant, which is supported by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas, which rivals the Islamist rulers in the Gaza Strip, accused Israel of wanting to trigger a larger regional war.

Maqdah's killing is the first such attack on a senior Fatah figure in more than 10 months of cross-border clashes between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement following the Gaza war.

The “assassination of a Fatah official is further proof that Israel wants to ignite a full-scale war in the region,” Tawfiq Tirawya member of the Fatah Central Committee, said AFP in Ramallah.

It happened just hours after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned empty-handed from a Middle East tour aimed at bringing about a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Blinken urged Hamas to urgently accept a US-backed ceasefire proposal while engaging in a public dispute with Israel over its future presence in the besieged Palestinian territory.

“Time is of the essence,” Blinken said before departing Doha after stopping in Qatar, Egypt and Israel on his ninth regional tour aimed at ending the Gaza war.

“This has to be done, and it has to be done in the coming days, and we will do everything possible to get it across the finish line,” he said of the ceasefire proposal.

The United States has put forward ideas to bridge the differences and, through Qatar and Egypt, has pressured Hamas to return to talks in Cairo this week.

But a day after Blinken said US ally Israel was on board, Benjamin Netanyahu Israeli media quoted him as saying he disagreed on an important point of contention.

Netanyahu insisted that Israel retain control of the Philadelphia Corridor, the border between Gaza and Egypt that Israeli forces seized from Hamas, which Israel says relies on secret tunnels to smuggle weapons.

Crucial point

Blinken said Israel had already agreed on the “timeline and location” of the troop withdrawal from Gaza.

Since the beginning of the conflict, “it has been made very clear that the United States does not accept a long-term occupation of the Gaza Strip by Israel,” Blinken said when asked about Netanyahu's comments.

A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, described Netanyahu's “maximalist statements” as unhelpful in achieving a ceasefire.

Blinken acknowledged differences and called for “maximum flexibility” from both Israel and Hamas.

Egypt, the first Arab country to make peace with Israel, is angry about the occupation of the border.

Hamas said it was “interested in a ceasefire” but protested against “new conditions” from Israel in the latest US proposal.

On the ground, Gaza was once again rocked by air strikes. AFP said reporters, first responders and witnesses.

The Israeli military said it had attacked about 30 targets across the Gaza Strip and that troops had eliminated “dozens” of militants.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees said death was the “only certainty” for the 2.4 million people in the Gaza Strip, as there was no way to escape Israel's bombings.

“Absolutely nowhere is safe,” said UNRWA spokeswoman Louise Wateridge“People … feel like they’re being chased around in circles.”

“Death seems to be the only certainty,” she said AFPTV.

As tensions escalated, Lebanon's Health Ministry said one person had been killed and 20 injured in previous Israeli strikes in the east of the country, just hours after four people were killed in the south.

Cross-border skirmishes between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah were occurring almost daily, but fears of an even greater crisis grew when Hamas’ political leader, Ismail Haniyawas killed on July 31 during a visit to Tehran.

Iran has vowed retaliation and blamed Israel for the killing, but has so far held back as the US has deployed additional troops and warned that a wider war could destroy prospects for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Elsewhere in the region, a merchant ship was hit by three projectiles off the coast of Yemen after an exchange of fire involving two boats, the UK Maritime Safety Authority (UKMTO) said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but it came at a time when the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen is continuing a campaign against international shipping that it says serves the Gaza Strip.

Hostage-taking

Israel and Hamas blame each other for the delay in reaching an agreement that would end the fighting, release Israeli hostages and allow vital humanitarian aid to flow to Gaza.

In Israel, Netanyahu faced public protests urging him to agree to a ceasefire that would include the release of hostages whose plight is troubling Israelis.

The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it had recovered the bodies of six hostages from tunnels in the Gaza Strip, some of whom were killed during its operations.

The October 7 attack left 1,199 people dead in Israel, most of them civilians, according to a AFP Count based on official Israeli figures.

Of the 251 people taken hostage that day, 105 are still being held in the Gaza Strip, including 34 who the military says are dead.

According to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled area, 40,223 Palestinians were killed in Israel's military retaliation campaign in Gaza. The ministry did not provide any information on the number of civilians and militants killed.

In a stark reminder of what is at stake for Netanyahu, a young Israeli woman symbolizing the 251 hostages called for their speedy return.

“Avinatan, my friend, is still there and we must bring her back before it is too late. We do not want to lose more people than we have already lost,” said Noa Argamani during a visit to Japan.