Government Israeli announced early Wednesday that it had approved an agreement to obtain the release of hostages kidnapped by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a truce in the Gaza Strip after weeks of war.
“The government approved the broad outlines of the first stage of an agreement according to which at least 50 kidnapped people (women and children) will be released for four days during which there will be a respite in the fighting,” the government said in a statement sent to AFP.
Before his cabinet meeting, which began on Tuesday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said that accepting the deal is “a complicated decision, but it is the right decision.”
His cabinet was under pressure from the families of around 240 people kidnapped by the Islamist group in its Oct. 7 attack, which also left 1,200 people dead, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities.
Since then, Israel launched an offensive against Gaza with the purpose of “annihilating” Hamas, which has left more than 14,000 dead in this territory, victims of incessant bombings and Israeli ground operations.
– The war will continue –
Hamas, whose leader Ismail Haniyeh had announced progress in the negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, celebrated the “humanitarian truce” agreement in a statement and assured that its provisions were “formulated in accordance with the vision of the resistance.”
Both the United States and Qatar had assured the day before that the agreement was very close after weeks of negotiations.
Two sources familiar with the negotiations explained to AFP that the tentative agreement is based on the release of between “50 and 100” hostages, including children and women, in exchange for the release of 300 Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
The truce agreement will not mean the end of the war in the Gaza Strip, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned on Tuesday, who said he wanted a “full force” resumption of operations to “defeat” Hamas.
“The Israeli government, the army IsraelYo and the security forces will continue the war to return all abducted people, eliminate Hamas and ensure that there is no threat to the State of Israel from Gaza,” the government agreed in the statement about the agreement.
The Palestinian movement Hamas was also defiant in its statement: “We confirm that our fingers will remain on the triggers and that our triumphant battalions will remain on the lookout.”
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– True “tragedy” –
The agreement is presented as a respite for the population of Gaza, also subjected to a “total siege” by Israel, which blocks supplies of food, water, electricity and medicine.
The UN, which along with other international organizations has been calling for a ceasefire for humanitarian reasons for weeks, estimates that the war displaced almost 1.7 of the 2.4 million inhabitants of the Strip.
A true health “tragedy” is emerging in the Palestinian territory, warned the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).
The BRICS group of emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) called on Tuesday during an extraordinary virtual summit for “an immediate and lasting humanitarian truce” in Gaza.
“If they reach a five-day truce now, I think it will pave the way for longer truces or even a complete ceasefire,” said hopeful Hamza Abdel Razeq, a resident of Rafah, in the south of the Strip.
“People are really suffering,” he explained to AFP.
This agreement “is bad for the security of Israelis, it is bad for the hostages, it is bad for the soldiers,” opposed the Religious Zionist Party, a far-right party with representation in Netanyahu’s government.
– Hospital attacked –
On Tuesday, Israeli troops continued fighting in the north of the Gaza Stripthe area hardest hit by the war, where entire blocks were reduced to ashes.
The army said its strikes hit “about 250” Hamas targets in the last day, adding that two soldiers were killed in the north of the Palestinian territory.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the Palestinian Red Crescent announced that three doctors, two of them from MSF, were killed in a bombing attack on the Al Awda hospital in the Jabaliya refugee camp. The Red Crescent denounced an “Israeli” bombing.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, the Indonesian Hospital – on the outskirts of the camp – was still under siege by Israeli tanks this Tuesday and “50 dead” were lying in the courtyard of the establishment.
The day before, “terrorists fired shots from inside the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza,” the Israeli army declared, adding that it responded by targeting “directly” the source of the shots.
The Islamist movement accuses Israel of waging “a war against hospitals” in Gazawhose northern sector barely has operational medical centers.
The Israeli authorities argue that Hamas uses these hospitals for military purposes and that it uses civilians as “human shields”, something that the Palestinian movement denies.
On another front, eight people, two of them journalists, were killed on Tuesday in Israeli bombings in southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese press.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, there has been crossfire on the Lebanese border between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas and supported by Iran.
Source: Gestion
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