Israel-Hamas truce ‘producing results’

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday said a temporary truce between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas had produced results and the United States hoped it would continue.

Sitting beside Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Blinken said Washington was focused on helping to secure freedom for hostages taken to Gaza.

“We have seen over the last week the very positive development of hostages coming home, being reunited with their families. And that should continue today. It’s also enabled an increase in humanitarian assistance to go to innocent civilians in Gaza who need it desperately,” Blinken said.

“So this process is producing results. It’s important, and we hope that it can continue,” Blinken said.

Their meeting in Tel Aviv took place on a morning when two Palestinian attackers opened fire at a bus stop during rush hour at the entrance to Jerusalem, killing at least three people and wounding eight others, Israeli police said. Both Blinken and Herzog condemned the attack.

Meanwhile, China yesterday called on the United Nations Security Council to formulate a “concrete” timetable and roadmap for a two-state solution to achieve a “comprehensive, just and lasting” settlement of the Palestinian issue.

The proposal was laid out in a paper stating China’s position on resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict released by the Chinese foreign ministry, and as China took over the rotating presidency of the Security Council for November.

The 15-member council needs to intensify its diplomatic mediation, relaunch the two-state solution and convene a “more authoritative and effective” international peace conference as soon as possible, the paper said.

It urged the council to heed the general call of the international community for a “comprehensive ceasefire” to stop the fighting.

Since the start of hostilities in October, Beijing has refrained from condemning Hamas, but instead said it opposed acts that harm civilians and sought for de-escalation and a two-state solution.

China’s foreign minister Wang Yi, who chaired a high-level Security Council meeting on the Gaza conflict on Wednesday in New York, urged for a lasting truce in the embattled territory and warned against the conflict from spilling over to the entire Middle East region.

“Peace cannot be limited and the ceasefire cannot have an expiration date,” China’s official Xinhua news agency cited Wang as saying.