10-year-old quintuplets murdered in Gaza as Blinken jets in for more ‘talks’

Alameen Templeton

Ten-year-old quintuplets, their 18-month-old sibling and their schoolteacher mother were killed Sunday overnight as Israel kept up its savage assault on Gaza while the US tried and failed to resuscitate its “peace talks”.
“The six children have become body parts. They were placed in a single bag,” their grandfather, Mohammed Awad Khatab said through tears in Deir al-Balah. “What did they do? Did they kill any of the Jews? … Will this provide security to Israel?”
Another strike east of Deir al-Balah killed at least four people, according to an AP journalist at the hospital. A strike in the northern town of Jabaliya hit two apartments, killing two men, a woman and her daughter, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Another two strikes in central Gaza killed nine people, according to Al-Awda Hospital. A strike in Nuseirat killed one person, the hospital said.
The latest dead bodies meant little to US foreign minister Antony Blinken – he hasn’t blinked once as the death toll from the on-screen genocide has surpassed 51 000 – who was more concerned with trying to winkle some kind of “win” in time for US elections.
He flew into in Israel Sunday to try desperately resuscitating a cease-fire deal that has been dead in the water ever since Israel backtracked from its commitments after the last “deal”.
Hamas did not even bother to attend last week’s session in Doha, saying all that was needed was for the US to ensure Israel honoured the previous “deal”.
US and Israeli officials are keeping one eye on churning out platitudes about “closing in on a deal” while expressing “cautious optimism” even as Hamas stays away. The other eye is on Iran that has still not retaliated for the assassinations of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.
Hamas in a statement Sunday accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of setting new conditions, including his refusal to completely withdraw his stormtroopers from Gaza.
“It is as if we live a primitive life,” said Sanaa Akela, a displaced Palestinian in the central town of Deir al-Balah, where sewage flooded some streets.
Late Saturday, a strike near the southern city of Khan Younis killed four people from the same family, including two women, according to Nasser Hospital.
Associated Press says Netanyahu identified areas of flexibility and compromise in the agreement during a Cabinet meeting. “We are conducting negotiations and not a scenario in which we just give and give,” he said.
Hamas had denied an agreement is near, saying the latest proposal has diverged significantly from a previous draft that it accepted in principle. Hamas has rejected Israel’s demands for a lasting military presence along the Gaza-Egypt border and a line bisecting Gaza where Israeli forces would search Palestinians returning to their homes. Israel says both are needed to prevent militants from rearming and returning to the north.
In the occupied West Bank, which has also seen a surge of violence, gunmen marched in a funeral procession for two Hamas commanders killed in an Israeli airstrike in Jenin the day before.