Hamas said Wednesday it was ready to extend the truce in the Gaza Strip by four days and release new hostages, while international mediators step up efforts to achieve a lasting end to the fighting between the Palestinian Islamist movement and Israel.
A new exchange of hostages held in the Gaza Strip since October 7 for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel is expected on Wednesday, the sixth day of this truce which has allowed the massive entry of humanitarian aid into the besieged Palestinian territory, devastated by seven weeks of Israeli bombing.
The truce has already been extended by two days, until 12 a.m. ET on Thursday. A source close to Hamas told AFP on Wednesday that the Islamist movement “agreed” to extend it for “an additional four days”.
“Hamas is able to release Israeli prisoners it is holding with other resistance movements and other parties during this period, under the current agreement and on the same conditions,” the source said. .
Every day since November 24, Hamas has released around ten women and children kidnapped during its bloody attack on October 7 in Israel, against the release of three times as many Palestinian prisoners.
Ten Israelis and two Thais, as well as 30 Palestinian prisoners, were released on Tuesday evening.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Wednesday that it had received the list of hostages to be released during the day.
The truce agreement, negotiated mainly by Qatar with the support of Egypt and the United States, has already enabled the release of 60 Israeli hostages and 180 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons.
Twenty-one foreign hostages, mostly Thais living in Israel, were released outside the framework of this agreement.
Israeli authorities estimated that around 240 people were kidnapped on October 7, during the unprecedented attack launched by Hamas from the Gaza Strip, which cost the lives of some 1,200 people in Israel, the vast majority of them civilians. civilians.
Sixteen days in solitary confinement
In retaliation, Israel promised to “annihilate” Hamas, in power since 2007 in the Gaza Strip, shelling the Palestinian territory and launching a ground offensive on October 27, until the truce.
According to the Hamas government, 14,854 people, including 6,150 under the age of 18, were killed in Israeli strikes.
Few direct testimonies have filtered through on the living conditions of the hostages in Gaza. But the grandmother of Eitan Yahalomi, a 12-year-old released Monday, said he was held in solitary confinement for 16 days.
“The days he was alone were horrible,” Esther Yaeli told Israeli news site Walla. “Now Eitan seems very withdrawn. »
Benjamin Netanyahu again promised Tuesday to “release all the hostages” of Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel.
“The Israeli army is ready to resume fighting. We take advantage of the break days to […] strengthen our preparation,” said Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi.
On the Palestinian side, scenes of joy greeted the prisoners released by Israel in the occupied West Bank.
In East Jerusalem, occupied and annexed by Israel, Ahmed Salaima, a 14-year-old Palestinian ex-detainee, was reunited with his family on Tuesday evening, according to AFP images. He is the youngest Palestinian prisoner to have been released since the start of the truce.
“I will never thank God enough for the release of my son,” exclaimed his father, Nayef Salaima, who explained that he “lost all contact” with him when the war began.
The mediators are active
Behind the scenes, mediators are working to extend the truce beyond Thursday. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected back in Israel and the West Bank on Thursday.
“Our main goal at present, and our hope, is to achieve a lasting truce that will lead to further negotiations and ultimately an end to the war,” the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. from Qatar, Majed Al Ansari.
“However, we work with what we have. And what we have is that we can extend (the truce) by one day every time Hamas is able to guarantee the release of at least ten hostages,” he explained.
The heads of the US and Israeli intelligence services met in Doha on Tuesday to discuss the “next phase” of a potential deal between Hamas and Israel with Qatar’s prime minister, according to a source briefed on the visit.
“We support the extension of this pause and future pauses, if necessary, in order to allow the increase of aid and facilitate the release of all hostages,” declared for their part the heads of diplomacy of the G7.
Despite the arrival since November 24, via Egypt, of hundreds of humanitarian aid trucks in the Gaza Strip, the situation there remains “catastrophic”, judged the World Food Program (WFP), estimating that “ there is a risk of famine.”
Contagious diseases
“We have had no water, no food, no flour for ten days. The situation is tough, very tough,” Achraf Selim, a resident of Gaza, told AFP.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it had seen a “massive increase” in some contagious diseases, including 45 times more cases of diarrhea among young children than usual, even as most hospitals in the Strip of Gaza are at a standstill.
According to a White House official, the quantity of humanitarian aid arriving by road now totals 2,000 truckloads of food, fuel, medicine and equipment necessary for the operation of seawater desalination infrastructure.
“In just over four weeks, we reached a sustained rate of 240 trucks per day,” said this manager. “We have made it very clear that when this phase of releasing the hostages is over, the current pace, or ideally higher rates, must be maintained,” he added.
Already subject to an Israeli land, sea and air blockade since 2007, the small, overpopulated territory was placed under total siege by Israel on October 9 and is suffering serious shortages of water, food, medicine, fuel and equipment. ‘electricity.
According to the UN, 1.7 million of its 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced by the war and more than half of the homes have been damaged or destroyed.
Thousands of Palestinians, displaced in the south of the Gaza Strip, took advantage of the truce to return to their homes in the north, the most devastated region, ignoring the ban by the Israeli army which took control of several sectors.
“I’m trying to find memories of my house,” says a Palestinian from al-Zahra, south of Gaza City, pointing to the mountains of rubble where his house stood, destroyed by Israeli strikes.