The Hamas leader is due to travel to Egypt on Wednesday to discuss a ceasefire in Gaza, after Israel indicated it was prepared to accept another pause in exchange for hostages.
The Hamas leader is due to travel to Egypt on Wednesday to discuss a ceasefire in Gaza, after Israel indicated it was prepared to accept another pause in exchange for hostages.
After more than two months of war, the two camps seem to be increasing the signals in favor of a second truce, after that of a week which allowed the release of 105 Hamas hostages against 240 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons.
The leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement, Ismaïl Haniyeh, must go to Egypt with a Hamas delegation to meet the head of Egyptian intelligence, Abbas Kamel.
The discussions must focus “on stopping the aggression and the war to prepare an agreement for the release of (Palestinian) prisoners, the end of the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip”, a source in the Gaza Strip explained to AFP. within Hamas.
For his part, Israeli President Isaac Herzog declared Tuesday that “Israel is ready for a new humanitarian pause and additional humanitarian aid to allow the release of the hostages.”
Israel has promised to destroy Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007, after the attack carried out by the Palestinian movement on Israeli soil on October 7 which left around 1,140 dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count. based on the latest official Israeli figures.
Some 250 people were taken hostage during this attack, 129 of whom are still in Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
In the Palestinian territory, 19,667 people, mostly women, children and adolescents, were killed by Israeli bombings, according to the latest report from the Hamas Ministry of Health.
Behind the scenes negotiations
A first truce, put in place from November 24 to December 1, allowed the release of 105 hostages in Gaza, including 80 in exchange for 240 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons.
During a meeting with the hostages’ families on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained that he had recently sent “the head of Mossad to Europe twice to promote a liberation process.”
“Our duty is to bring them all back,” he insisted.
Other negotiations appear to be taking place behind the scenes.
According to the Axios site, Israel proposed through Qatar – which had already served as mediator to achieve the first truce – a new pause of at least a week in the fighting in Gaza to organize the release of several dozen hostages.
Until now, Hamas has made a cessation of fighting a prerequisite for any new negotiations on this subject.
On Tuesday, Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas, increased the pressure by publishing a new video of two living hostages, pleading for a compromise that would allow them to return to Israel.
Tough negotiations must also continue on Wednesday at the United Nations: since Monday, the Security Council has been unable to adopt a resolution to speed up the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The vote has been postponed twice and members are looking for the right formula to avoid a veto from the United States, Israel’s main ally. The text, which initially called for an “urgent and lasting cessation of hostilities” in Gaza, now refers to a “suspension” of fighting.
Humanitarian crisis
On the ground, strikes targeted central Gaza on Tuesday, as well as the towns of Rafah and Khan Younes in the south, according to AFP correspondents.
ADVERTISEMENTThe Israeli army explained that it was intensifying its operations in Khan Younes. She also announced that she had discovered explosives in a medical center in Choujaiya, in the suburbs of Gaza City, destroyed Hamas tunnels and killed senior members of the movement during recent operations.
Subjected by Israel to a total siege since October 9, the Palestinian territory is facing a profound humanitarian crisis: most of its hospitals are out of service and 85% of its population, or 1.9 million people, have fled the destruction. north of the enclave to take refuge in the south.
According to a report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs released Wednesday, half of the population suffers from extreme or severe hunger, and 90% regularly go without food for an entire day.
Even if trucks of aid and goods still entered the territory on Tuesday through the Rafah crossing points, via Egypt, and Kerem Shalom, in southern Israel, these supplies are very far from meeting the needs. the most basic needs of the population.
Only 10% of the food currently needed has entered the Gaza Strip over the past 70 days, according to the report.
ADVERTISEMENT“Without the clean water, food and sanitation that only a humanitarian ceasefire can provide, child deaths from disease could exceed those killed in bombings,” warned Tuesday UNICEF spokesperson.
“No water, no food”
“We don’t know where to go. Today, there is no water, no food, there is nothing,” Nizar Chahine, a 15-year-old teenager displaced by the fighting in Rafah, a southern city where hundreds of thousands of people are crowded.
In Deir el-Balah, in the center of the territory, Youssef Journi despairs in front of the empty shelves of grocery stores.
“If the war continues, you won’t find anything in the stores, people won’t even find a grain of flour to eat,” he sighs.
In addition to the situation in Gaza, the international community also fears an extension of the conflict in the Middle East.
ADVERTISEMENTOn Tuesday, the Israeli army said it had targeted positions of Hezbollah, Hamas’ Islamist ally in Lebanon, after intercepting fire from the neighboring country. Two reservists were lightly injured after shooting at an Israeli position near the border, it said in a statement.
In Yemen, the Houthi rebels, supported by Iran, have vowed to continue their attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, which they consider “linked to Israel”, despite the launch of a new multinational maritime protection force. .
