No Ceasefire Deal Before Biden Leaves Office!

Senior U.S. officials have privately acknowledged they don’t expect a Gaza ceasefire agreement to be reached before the end of President Biden’s term in January 2025, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The newspaper cited top-level officials in the White House, State Department and Pentagon without naming them according to the Quds News Network.

“No deal is imminent,” one of the U.S. officials said. “I’m not sure it ever gets done.”

Officials cited two main reasons for the pessimism.

The two obstacles that have been especially difficult: Israel’s demand to keep forces in the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt and the specifics of an exchange deal of Israeli captives for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

As a result, the mood inside the administration and in the Middle East is as gloomy as it has been in months, the newspaper said.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan met Wednesday with the relatives of the remaining seven American captives held in Gaza, telling them that securing their release was a top priority for Biden. But a statement from the families said they “expressed frustration with the lack of tangible progress” to Sullivan, urging the administration to make a deal as soon as possible.

John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, told reporters Wednesday the prospects of a completed deal were “daunting,” and though the administration signaled for months that a deal was near, said, “we aren’t any closer to that now than we were even a week ago.”

One of the officials said “it would be irresponsible” for the administration to give up seeking an agreement that brings at least temporary relief to the region. But the official also signaled frustration with the Israelis and Hamas.

“As we’ve said from the outset, it is going to require leadership and compromise,” the official said, “and we urge all sides to demonstrate it.”

“I can tell you that we do not believe that deal is falling apart,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters on Thursday before the report was published.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said two weeks ago that 90% of a ceasefire deal had been agreed upon.

The United States and mediators Qatar and Egypt have for months attempted to secure a ceasefire but have failed to bring Israel and Hamas to a final agreement.

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Israel Blocks 83% of Aid to Gaza – 16 UN Agencies

Israel continues to block the entry of food aid to Gaza. It said that shortly after 7 October. Today, it continues to do so except for the bare minimum whilst deliberately starving the people of the enclave.

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Hassan Nasrallah Vows ‘Hell’ For Israel

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah vowed to turn Israel’s actions into a “hell”, Thursday, after the group suffered a “severe blow” when communication devices were detonated earlier this week in Lebanon.  

Nasrallah made the remarks during a televised speech to address the explosions that killed 37 people and injured thousands.  

“We admit we have received a severe blow which is natural as we acknowledge Israel’s technological superiority, backed by the US, NATO, and the West,” said Nasrallah. “The Israeli enemy sought to kill 5,000 people within just two minutes, showing no regard for anything.”  

“The number of pagers carried by Hezbollah members is 4,000, which implies that Israel intentionally sought to kill 4,000 people,” he said.  

The explosions “will be met with a just retribution, severe reckoning, timing, place, the nature of which we will determine,” said Nasrallah.  

He warned Israel that if it establishes a security belt on Lebanese territory, “it will be turn into a trap and a hell.”  

Nasrallah added that multiple investigative commissions were formed to examine the circumstances of the explosions and they have reached a nearly definitive conclusion, but the Lebanese resistance group is awaiting confirmation.  

He noted that the severity of eye injuries from the explosions “has placed significant pressure on hospitals in Lebanon.”  

Furthermore, Nasrallah pointed out that many of the explosions occurred in hospitals, markets, public roads and homes – areas predominantly inhabited by civilians, including children and women.  

His speech coincided with the intensive flights of Israeli warplanes flying at low altitude over the Lebanese capital, Beirut, breaking the sound barrier multiple times, Anadolu reporter said.

The Hezbollah chief considered the blasts to be a natural occurrence, stating: “This is the nature of war and conflict. We know that our enemy has a technological superiority because America stands behind it, along with NATO and the West.”   

He emphasized: “the Lebanese front will not stop until the war on Gaza stops.”  

Nasrallah noted that senior Hezbollah leaders do not carry the type of pager devices that exploded on Tuesday, asserting that the resistance’s structure “remains large and cohesive.”  

Nasrallah concluded his speech by affirming that what occurred on Tuesday and Wednesday will be met with “just retribution and severe reckoning,” indicating that Hezbollah “will determine the timing, place, and nature of the response.”  

At least 37 people were killed and nearly 3,000 others injured on Tuesday and Wednesday in explosions that targeted thousands of wireless communication devices across the country.  

There has been no Israeli comment on the blasts, which came amid an escalation in cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Israel’s deadly war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 41,300 people, mostly women and children, following a cross-border attack by Hamas last Oct. 7.  

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On This Day: Count Bernadotte Killed by Zionist Terrorists

On 17 September 1948, UN mediator Count Bernadotte was murdered in Jerusalem by a Zionist militant organization Lehi. Bernadotte, a leading Swedish diplomat was appointed by the UN Security Council as a mediator to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Count Bernadotte’s presence in Palestine followed the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and the subsequent unilateral Israeli Declaration of Independence.

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