For today, links to eleven reports: from the Associated Press, Reuters, National Public Radio, and Middle East Monitor, and to a profile from The New Yorker; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. (UKRAINE and MEDIA entries for this date are HERE and HERE.) — MCM
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Blinken visits Gaza mediators in pursuit of cease-fire deal. From AP. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar as he pressed ahead today with the latest diplomatic mission to secure a cease-fire in the war in Gaza. Hamas in a new statement called the latest proposal presented to it . . . READ MORE . . .
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Blinken in Egypt seeking progress towards Gaza ceasefire deal, by Humeyra Pamuk | Reuters ALAMEIN, Egypt — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pushed for progress towards a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal as he visited Egypt today, but major areas of dispute are still to be resolved in talks planned for later this week. He flew to Egypt from Tel Aviv, where . . . READ MORE . . .
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Israeli military retrieves bodies of six hostages from Gaza, by Maytaal Angel | Reuters JERUSALEM — Israel has retrieved the bodies of six hostages from the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza, the military said today, as negotiations continued in an effort to bring back more than 100 who remain in the besieged enclave. READ MORE . . . Click HERE for report from AP.
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FROM AUG. 19 Blinken says Israel OKs a plan to break the cease-fire impasse and urges Hamas to do the same, by Matthew Lee | AP TEL AVIV — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that Israel has accepted a proposal to bridge differences holding up a cease-fire and hostage release in Gaza, and he called on Hamas to do the same, without saying whether concerns cited by the militant group had been addressed. READ MORE . . .
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FROM AUG. 19 The latest on Blinken’s cease-fire negotiations in Israel. Reported by Michele Kelemen and Kat Lonsdorf | NPR United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Israel pushing for a cease-fire in Gaza as soon as possible. Click HERE to listen and read.
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Blinken heads to Egypt and Qatar to try to seal Gaza cease-fire deal. Reported by Kat Lonsdorf and Steve Inskeep | NPR Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Israel has agreed to a cease-fire proposal for the war in Gaza. That announcement came after he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu in Jerusalem. Click HERE later to listen and, still later, read.
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Why is Israel demanding control over 2 Gaza corridors in the cease-fire talks? by Joseph Krauss | AP Israel’s demand for lasting control over two strategic corridors in Gaza, which Hamas has long rejected, threatens to unravel cease-fire talks aimed at ending the 10-month-old war, freeing scores of hostages and preventing an even wider conflict. Officials close to . . . READ MORE . . .
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What is happening in Gaza is not a war, but massacres committed by the Zionists, Algeria says. From Middle East Monitor. Algeria is ready to build three field hospitals in Gaza if the border between Egypt and the enclave is reopened, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said on Sunday. READ MORE . . .
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FROM AUG. 3 The life of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, by David Remnick | The New Yorker In the archives of Israel’s military courts, there is a six-page document, handwritten in Hebrew, that records an interrogation of Yahya Ibrahim Hassan Sinwar, the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip. The document . . . READ MORE . . . Click HERE to report from NPR.