Mediator countries hope Tuesday for a pause in the war that has raged for almost seven months between Israel and Hamas, awaiting a response from the Islamist movement to a proposed 40-day truce combined with the release of held hostages in the Gaza Strip.
The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, expected in Israel on Tuesday after a stop in Jordan, said on Monday “hope” for a favorable response from Hamas to a proposal that he described as “extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel “.
According to the head of British diplomacy, David Cameron, this offer includes a 40-day ceasefire, associated with the release of “thousands of Palestinian prisoners” held by Israel, in exchange for the release of hostages kidnapped on the day of the bloody attack carried out by Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7, which sparked the war.
This proposal follows months of deadlock in indirect negotiations aimed at establishing a new truce in the Palestinian territory.
At the end of November, a first one-week truce allowed the release of 105 hostages, including 80 Israelis and dual nationals exchanged for 240 Palestinians detained by Israel.
“As quickly as possible”
After a meeting Monday in Cairo with representatives of Egypt and Qatar, two of the mediating countries with the United States, a Hamas delegation returned to Doha and is expected to give its response “as quickly as possible”, the Hamas official told the ‘AFP a source close to the movement.
According to the al-Qahera News site, close to Egyptian intelligence, the Hamas delegation “will return with a written response to the truce proposal.”
American President Joe Biden, for his part, asked the leaders of Qatar and Egypt to “do everything possible” to obtain the release of hostages from Hamas, “because this is the only obstacle to a immediate ceasefire.”
On Tuesday, airstrikes notably targeted Rafah, a town transformed into a huge refugee camp at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, as well as the neighboring town of Khan Younes and Gaza City in the north, according to a AFP correspondent.
In Gaza City, Civil Defense said it had recovered six bodies after a bombing of the Al-Amal neighborhood. According to the Hamas health ministry, at least 47 people were killed in 24 hours across the territory.
The army announced on Monday that it had carried out airstrikes on “terrorist targets” in the central Gaza Strip, where ground troops were also the target of fire followed by an air response.
The war broke out on October 7 when Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza carried out an unprecedented attack in southern Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,170 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP report established from official Israeli data.
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 vowed to annihilate Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007 and which it considers a terrorist organization, as do the United States and the European Union.
Its army launched an offensive that has so far killed 34,535 people, mostly civilians, according to Hamas’s health ministry, devastated the small territory and caused a massive population displacement.
Hamas is particularly demanding a permanent ceasefire before any agreement on the release of the hostages, which Israel has always refused.
The demands of the Islamist movement also relate to “an (Israeli) withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the return of the displaced, a clear timetable for the start of reconstruction and an exchange agreement which removes all injustice towards Palestinian detainees, men and women,” one of the negotiators, Zaher Jabareen, told AFP on Monday.
“A lasting truce”
Antony Blinken, who is on his seventh tour of the Middle East since the start of the war, is due to discuss Tuesday in Jordan ways to increase humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, besieged by Israel and threatened with famine.
International aid, strictly controlled by the Israeli authorities, arrives in trickles mainly from Egypt via Rafah, but remains very insufficient given the immense needs of the 2.4 million Gazans.
The United States is pressuring Israel to make it easier for aid to enter by road and has also begun building a floating port off the Gaza coast, intended to accommodate cargo arriving by boat.
Antony Blinken also reiterated on Monday his country’s opposition to an Israeli offensive on the city of Rafah, which houses nearly a million and a half Palestinians in catastrophic health conditions.
After enduring the cold of winter, displaced families are now suffering rising heat, without running water, and threatened by the spread of diseases.
“The water we drink is hot,” testified Ranine Aouni al-Arian, a mother. “Children can no longer stand the heat and the bites of flies and mosquitoes,” she added.
“We ask the whole world to call for a lasting truce, that is enough,” said a Palestinian, Abou Taha, who was watching over relatives killed at al-Najjar hospital in Rafah on Monday.
Despite the disapproval of many capitals and humanitarian organizations, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, affirms that an offensive on Rafah, where according to Israel four Hamas battalions are grouped, is necessary to defeat the Islamist movement and free the hostages.
reference: www.lapresse.ca