U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken completed his visit to the Middle East without securing a ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
Blinken said that Israel has accepted the ceasefire proposal, which outlines a clear timeline and locations for the IDF’s withdrawal from Gaza. Efforts are now focused on getting Hamas to agree to the proposal.
Yesterday, Khalil al-Maqdah, a brigadier general of the armed wing of the Palestinian organization Fatah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon.
It is the first attack in over 10 months against a senior official of Fatah, the organization founded by Yasser Arafat and currently led by Mahmoud Abbas.
Khalil al-Maqdah was the brother of Mounir al-Maqdah, the leader of Fatah’s armed wing in Lebanon. Israel accuses Mounir al-Maqdah of smuggling weapons into the West Bank, and Fatah has promised “retaliation.”
This attack is the first on a senior Fatah member in over 10 months of cross-border conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
In a statement, Fatah said that Khalil al-Maqdah played a “central role” in supporting the Palestinian people and their resistance during the Gaza war and had a “significant role” in supporting resistance groups in the West B
