(Jerusalem) An Egyptian delegation is expected in Israel on Friday to try, according to media reports, to relaunch stalled negotiations on a truce between Israel and Hamas, associated with a release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
The war that has raged since October 7 in the Palestinian territory is accompanied by an outbreak of violence on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where the Israeli army announced the death of a civilian on Friday.
Israel is meanwhile preparing to launch a ground offensive against Hamas in the crowded town of Rafah, which borders Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip.
Many capitals and humanitarian organizations fear a bloodbath in this city which has become a refuge for nearly a million and a half Palestinians, many of them crammed into tent camps, without water or electricity, where they are beginning to suffer from the heat. after enduring the cold of winter.
After six and a half months of bombings and ground fighting, Israel estimates that the Islamist movement has four battalions grouped in Rafah. On Thursday, the Israeli war cabinet met “to discuss ways to destroy the last battalions of Hamas,” according to government spokesperson David Mencer.
A delegation from Egypt, one of the three mediator countries with Qatar and the United States, is expected in Israel on Friday to discuss “security” issues, according to a source close to the government.
But according to Israeli media, the delegation must try to relaunch negotiations and plead for a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas involving the release of “dozens” of hostages.
According to the Israeli site Walla, which cites a senior Israeli official, the discussions concern a proposal to initially release 20 hostages considered to be “humanitarian” cases.
According to the Al-Araby channel, it is also about supporting Egypt’s efforts to prevent an offensive on Rafah.
A Hamas political official, Ghazi Hamad, assured Thursday from Qatar that an assault on Rafah would not allow Israel to obtain “what it wants”, that is to say “to eliminate Hamas or recover ” the hostages.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says an offensive on Rafah is necessary to defeat Hamas and free the hostages, the two main stated objectives of the current offensive.
Shooting at the Lebanese border
Since the start of the war, violence has increased on the Israeli-Lebanese border, where exchanges of fire have become daily between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, a powerful armed movement allied to Hamas and supported by Iran.
Tens of thousands of residents have fled communities on both sides of the border.
PHOTO KAWNAT HAJU, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Since the start of the war, violence has increased on the Israeli-Lebanese border, where exchanges of fire have become daily between the Israeli army and Hezbollah.
The army announced Friday that an Israeli civilian was killed overnight near the border by missiles fired from southern Lebanon, where it destroyed Hezbollah infrastructure.
“In the night, terrorists fired anti-tank missiles at the Har Dov area in northern Israel. An Israeli civilian working on an infrastructure project was injured and later pronounced dead,” the army said.
Har Dov is the Israeli name for the Shebaa Farms, a disputed border area.
Hezbollah, for its part, claims to have carried out “a complex ambush” against an Israeli convoy in the “occupied Shebaa Farms” and to have “destroyed two vehicles”.
The army said it had struck “targets belonging to Hezbollah in the Chebaa area, in southern Lebanon, including an arsenal and a launcher” of missiles, as well as “operational infrastructure” and a “military compound”.
A “deal now”
The war in Gaza was triggered on October 7 by an unprecedented attack carried out against Israel by Hamas commandos, which resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP report based on official data. Israelis.
More than 250 people have been kidnapped and 129 remain captive in Gaza, 34 of whom have died according to Israeli officials.
In retaliation, Israel promised to destroy Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007 and which it considers a terrorist organization, as do the United States and the European Union. His army launched an offensive that has so far killed 34,305 people, mostly civilians, according to the Islamist movement’s health ministry.
On Thursday, relatives of hostages demonstrated once again in Tel Aviv to put pressure on the government to obtain their release.
Some had their hands tied and stained red, their mouths covered with a plaster marked “202”, the number of days since October 7, or carried a sign with the words “A hostage agreement now”.
A floating port
PHOTO PROVIDED TO AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The United States has begun building a temporary port and pier facing the Gaza coastline.
The war which devastated the Gaza Strip also caused a humanitarian disaster in the territory of 2.4 million inhabitants, besieged by Israel and threatened with famine.
Faced with difficulties in transporting international aid by road from Egypt, due to the very strict controls imposed by Israel, the United States began to build a temporary port and a pier facing the coast of Gaza, where military or civilian ships will be able to deposit their cargo.
These will then be transported on smaller ships to the coast. The pier should be operational by early May, according to the Pentagon.
reference: www.lapresse.ca