By Athena Papakosta

The Secretary of State of the United States is visiting Saudi Arabia, today Monday, Anthony Blinken, in order to discuss the ongoing efforts for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. A new telephone conversation between the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, was preceded early Sunday evening.

The US secretary of state on this new trip to the Middle East region will focus on preventing the spread of the war – amid fears of an imminent invasion of the Israeli army in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Given that the United States has made it clear to the Israeli political leadership that they will not support the Israeli attack suffocatingly full of displaced civilians in the southernmost city of the Palestinian enclave, the White House, through the spokesman of the National Security Council, John Kirby, made it known, on Sunday afternoon, that Israel is now willing to listen to Washington’s concerns about the threatened attack.

“They have assured us that they will not enter Rafa until we have had the opportunity to share our views and concerns with them,” said John Kirby, speaking to the American network, ABC News.

At the same time, today, Monday, a delegation of Hamas is expected in the capital of Egypt, Cairo.

According to information from AFP, which cited a senior official of the Palestinian Islamist organization, Hamas is expected to respond to Israel’s counter-proposal for a truce.

The details of what is included in this offer have not been disclosed. However, in early April, negotiations between the two sides focused on a 6-week ceasefire and the release of 40 hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.
According to the news agency, Associated Press, an Egyptian official stressed that the mediators are working on a compromise solution in order to manage to answer the concerns of both sides, but also to prepare the ground for further talks aimed at ending the war.

However, for its part, Qatar – which is reconsidering its key role in the negotiations between Israel and Hamas – does not seem optimistic about the outcome of the talks.

As stated by the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and adviser to the country’s prime minister, Mazed al-Ansari, granting a rare interview to the Israeli media and specifically to the newspaper, Haaretz, “we hope, with the help of our international partners, that we can push and both sides to an agreement, but right now, what we see from both sides is a lack of commitment to the process.”

Already in Riyadh on Sunday, new talks were held between Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. Under Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, his Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts along with diplomats from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the Palestinian Authority discussed a ceasefire as well as efforts to establish a Palestinian States.

At the same time, however, back in Israel – and while Netanyahu’s government ministers are publicly expressing their demands for the terms that should be included in the ceasefire agreement – the country’s Chief of Army Staff, Herji Halevi approved plans to continue the war.

For his part, speaking at the World Economic Forum, the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, appealed to the United States, stressing that only Washington can help prevent “the greatest catastrophe in the history of the Palestinian people”, that is, the attack of the of Israeli armed forces in Rafah.