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Added on the 28/12/2016 18:29:26 - Copyright : Euronews EN
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Israel and the Palestinians to ease tensions following a spike in violence that has put the region on edge. The bloodshed has alarmed the Biden administration as it attempts to find common ground with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new right-wing government and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. For more on the latest flare-up in violence between Israelis and Palestinians, France 24 is joined by Scott Lucas, Professor of American Studies and International Politics at the University College Dublin Clinton Institute.
A nine-month deadline for Israelis and Palestinians to keep talking in order to reach a peace deal could be a recipe for disaster, says noted Middle East analyst Aaron David Miller. But the man who has advised six US Secretaries of State tells Annette Young that John Kerry could in fact be the man to defy all odds.
Israel and Hamas on Thursday agreed to extend their cease-fire by another day, just minutes before it was set to expire. The truce in Gaza appeared increasingly tenuous as the number of women and children held by the militants as bargaining chips dwindled after dozens were released. Word of the extension came just as the truce was to expire at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) Thursday. The Qatari Foreign Ministry said the truce was being extended under the same terms as in the past, with Hamas releasing 10 Israeli hostages per day in exchange for Israel's release of 30 Palestinian prisoners. International pressure has mounted for the cease-fire to continue as long as possible after nearly eight weeks of Israeli bombardment and a ground campaign in Gaza that have killed thousands of Palestinians, uprooted three quarters of the population of 2.3 million and led to a humanitarian crisis. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel late Wednesday on his third trip to the region since the start of the war, and is expected to press for further extensions of the truce and the release of more hostages. The announcement followed a last-minute standoff, with Hamas saying Israel had rejected a proposed list that included seven living captives and the remains of three who the group said were killed in Israeli airstrikes. Israel later said Hamas submitted an improved list, paving the way for the extension. The talks appear to be growing tougher with most of the women and children taken hostage by Hamas during the deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war already freed. The militants are expected to make greater demands in return for freeing men and soldiers. As truce talks get tougher, FRANCE 24's Angela DIFFLEY is joined by Oliver McTernan, Co-Founder and Director of Forward Thinking.
The European Union's autumn summit, held this week in Brussels, was attended by a new prime minister who is a well-known face of the centre-left.
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