what to remember from Monday, May 6

The Islamist movement says it has accepted a truce proposal formulated by Qatar and Egypt, while Israel continues to prepare its ground offensive in Rafah, by carrying out intense bombings.

The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas said it accepted, Monday, May 6, a truce proposal formulated by Qatar and Egypt, two countries mediating in the conflict with Israel. After this announcement, the Israeli army carried out intense bombardments on the east of the crowded town of Rafah, where it asked the population to evacuate before launching a military ground operation. Many countries, including the United States, Israel’s main ally, and international organizations condemn this project.

Hamas accepts truce proposal

According to a statement published on its website, Hamas said it had informed Egypt and Qatar, mediator countries with the United States, that it had “approved their proposed ceasefire agreement” with Israel in the Gaza Strip, devastated by seven months of war. According to a senior Hamas official, Khalil al-Hayya, the agreement includes three phases, each lasting 42 days, and includes a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the return of displaced people and an exchange of hostages still held in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, with the aim of “permanent ceasefire”.

“Israel will send a delegation (…) to mediation to exhaust the possibilities of reaching an agreement” truce, “even if Hamas’ proposals are far from the essential requirements” Israelis, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office responded in a statement. He adds that “the war cabinet decided to continue the operation in Rafah to exert military pressure on Hamas”.

In Israel, families of hostages demand an agreement

Families of hostages held in the Gaza Strip demand Monday that an agreement be reached after Hamas announced that it had accepted a proposal submitted by Egypt and Qatar for a ceasefire with Israel . “Hamas’ announcement should pave the way for the return of the 132 hostages held captive by Hamas for more than seven months”declared in a press release the Families Forum, an Israeli association of relatives of hostages founded the day after October 7. “The time has come for all parties involved to fulfill their commitment and turn this opportunity into an agreement for the return of all hostages”we add.

Israeli army calls for evacuation of Rafah

After Hamas’ announcement, the Israeli army says it has struck more than “50 terrorist targets” in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to launch the offensive on this city, whatever the outcome of the negotiations. The Israeli army claimed that it was essential for “destroy the last four battalions” Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In this perspective, she says she started “a limited-scale operation to temporarily evacuate people residing in eastern Rafah”estimating at “around 100,000” the number of people affected.

In leaflets dropped on the eastern neighborhoods of Rafah, the Israeli army warned that it “is preparing to act forcefully against terrorist organizations” and asked the residents “to immediately evacuate to the expanded humanitarian zone of al-Mawasi”, about ten kilometers from Rafah. Israel claims that “field hospitals, tents and an increasing volume of food, water, medicines and more” have installed there.

Residents and humanitarian organizations describe areas already overpopulated or destroyed after seven months of war. “Residents evacuate in terror and panic”Ossama al-Kahlout, a Palestinian Red Crescent official in eastern Rafah, told AFP, specifying that the designated areas were home to around 250,000 people.

Serious international concerns

L’“mass evacuation” part of the population of Rafah is “impossible” to do so “safe”underlined the spokesperson for the UN Secretary General, while the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights judged “inhuman” the evacuation order. At the same time, several capitals, including Washington, Riyadh, Amman and Paris, repeated their opposition to the offensive on Rafah. In a telephone interview, US President Joe Biden reiterated his “clear position” to Benjamin Netanyahu against any offensive in Rafah, according to the White House.

This evacuation order in Rafah “portends the worst: more war and famine. This is unacceptable”, also launched the head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell. The World Food Program (WFP) recently warned that the northern Gaza Strip was being hit by a “real famine”, which is progressing towards the south of the Palestinian territory. The Palestinian Authority, which sits in the occupied West Bank, has called on Washington to prevent a “massacre”.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad announces it has fired rockets

The armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad announced in the evening that it had fired rockets from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, against a backdrop of intense Israeli bombardments on the town of Rafah and Hamas’ approval of a ceasefire project. “We aimed with barrages of rockets [la ville de]Sderot, [le kibboutz] Nir Am and other settlements in the Gaza envelope”, an area of ​​Israel located around the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian armed group said in a statement. The Israeli military announced that sirens sounded in areas around the Gaza Strip. No report was immediately available.