Negotiations resumed on Sunday in Cairo with a view to obtaining a truce between Israel and Hamas during Ramadan in the Gaza Strip, where deadly Israeli bombings continue in the Palestinian territory threatened with famine according to the UN.
According to Egyptian pro-government media, representatives from Qatar and the United States have arrived in the Egyptian capital. There, Hamas envoys must “give them a response to the proposal developed in Paris” at the end of January, indicated a source close to the Islamist movement.
The proposal from the mediating countries – Qatar, United States, Egypt – concerns a six-week pause in the fighting and the release of 42 hostages held in Gaza versus that of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
The aim is to achieve a truce before the start of the Muslim fasting month, which will begin on March 10 or 11 this year.
“The Israelis have accepted in principle the elements of the agreement,” assured a senior American official in Washington on Saturday, but Israel has not confirmed this information.
A truce could be signed within “24-48 hours” if Israel “accepts Hamas’ demands”, a senior official of the Palestinian movement told AFP on Sunday, on condition of anonymity.
They include “the return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza and an increase in humanitarian aid” of the order of “400 to 500 trucks per day,” he added, compared to around 80 currently.
Family decimated
In exchange for a release of hostages, the Palestinian movement is also demanding a definitive ceasefire and an Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza, where several nighttime airstrikes have targeted the towns of Khan Younes and Rafah, in the south, according to an AFP correspondent.
PHOTO SAID KHATIB, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Men search through the rubble of the Abou Anza family home destroyed in an overnight Israeli airstrike in Rafah on March 3.
The Hamas government also said heavy artillery fire targeted Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun, Zeitoun and Tal al-Hawa in the north.
In nearly five months, Israeli military operations launched in retaliation for the unprecedented Hamas attack in Israel on October 7 have left 30,410 people dead in the Gaza Strip, the majority civilians, the Health Ministry said on Sunday. .
He reported 90 deaths in 24 hours, including 14 members of the Abou Anza family, including the twin babies a few months old Naïm and Wissam, in a strike on their house in Rafah.
PHOTO MOHAMMED ABED, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Two women try to console Rania Abou Anza (center) after the death of her twins in a strike on their home in Rafah.
“Honestly, there was no military presence in the house, only civilians,” Shehda Abou Anza, a nephew, told AFP. “There were perhaps more than 15 children in this completely destroyed four-story house.” “All babies and young children.”
The conflict has also caused a humanitarian catastrophe and famine is “virtually inevitable” for 2.2 million people, the vast majority of Gaza’s population, according to Jens Laerke, spokesperson for OCHA. United Nations agency for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.
According to the Ministry of Health, 16 children have died of “malnutrition and dehydration” in recent days.
Help on a massive scale
The UN Security Council on Saturday expressed “grave concern” over food insecurity in Gaza and called for the unhindered delivery of “large-scale” humanitarian aid.
Faced with the difficulties of transporting humanitarian aid by road in the territory sealed off by Israel, the United States carried out a first airdrop of aid on Saturday in a joint operation with Jordan.
In Rome, Pope Francis called for guaranteeing “safe access” to humanitarian aid for the population in “urgent need”.
The war was sparked by an attack on October 7 in southern Israel by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza, where the movement took power in 2007.
This attack resulted in the death of at least 1,160 people, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
Around 250 people were also kidnapped and, according to Israel, 130 hostages are still being held in the Gaza Strip, 31 of whom are believed to have died. A truce at the end of November allowed the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian detainees.
Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organization, along with the United States and the European Union.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the upcoming launch of a major operation on Rafah, to defeat the Islamist movement in its “last bastion”.
This prospect worries the international community because the city is home to nearly 1.5 million Palestinians, the vast majority displaced, trapped against the closed border with Egypt.
Preliminary investigation
Cargoes by land, subject to the green light from Israel which has imposed a blockade on Gaza since 2007, only arrive in very limited quantities via Rafah, from Egypt, according to the UN.
Their transport, particularly in the north of the territory, is perilous due to fighting, Israeli bombings, rubble blocking roads and sometimes looting.
An aid distribution in Gaza City turned tragic on Thursday when several hundred people rushed onto humanitarian aid trucks.
Hamas claims the Israeli army opened fire on the hungry crowd. Israel spoke of shootings on Sunday against “several thieves” who represented “an immediate threat” to the soldiers responsible for securing the area.
The preliminary investigation “confirmed that no strike was carried out by [l’armée] in the direction of the aid convoy,” said Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari. “The majority of Palestinians were killed or injured as a result of the stampede” to seize the trucks’ cargo, he said.
The tragedy left 118 dead and 760 injured, according to Hamas, and the international community called for an investigation.
A UN team said it found “a large number” of gunshot wounds at a hospital in the city where many victims had been admitted.