Negotiations resumed on Sunday in Cairo for a truce between Israel and Hamas during Ramadan in the Gaza Strip, subject to new deadly Israeli bombardments while the besieged Palestinian territory is threatened with famine according to the UN.
According to an Egyptian pro-government media outlet, representatives of Qatar and the United States are in Cairo, where Hamas envoys were to “give them a response to the proposal developed in Paris” at the end of January, said a source close to the Palestinian Islamist movement. .
The proposal from the mediators – Qatar, United States, Egypt – concerns a six-week pause in the fighting and the release of 42 of the 130 Israeli hostages – 31 of whom are believed to have died – still being held in Gaza against Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
The objective is to achieve a truce in the hostilities, which began almost five months ago, before the start of the month of Muslim fasting, which begins this year on March 10 or 11.
“The Israelis have accepted in principle the elements of the agreement,” a senior American official in Washington assured 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. Hamas is also demanding a definitive ceasefire and an Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza.
And Israel, which has vowed to annihilate Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organization, along with the United States and the European Union, has so far not announced any intention to join the negotiations. in Egypt, demanding that Hamas provide a list of hostages still being held in Gaza.
Famine “almost inevitable”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the upcoming launch of a major operation in Rafah (south), to defeat Hamas in its “last bastion”.
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.
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.
On Sunday evening, an AFP correspondent reported several Israeli air strikes on Rafah and Khan Younes further north.
Witnesses also told AFP that an Israeli strike had hit a humanitarian truck in Deir el-Balah (center). Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army said without providing details: “It was not a humanitarian truck that was hit.”
PHOTO MOHAMMED ABED, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Two women try to console Rania Abou Anza (center) after the death of her twins who were killed in a strike on their home in Rafah.
For its part, the Palestinian Red Crescent, indicated on X that it had “transported five dead and four injured following the targeting of a truck by an Israeli drone […] in Deir el-Balah.
The war was sparked on October 7 by an unprecedented attack launched in southern Israel by Hamas commandos from the Gaza Strip which resulted in the deaths of at least 1,160 people, according to an AFP count. based on official Israeli data.
Around 250 people were also kidnapped during the attack. A truce at the end of November allowed the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
In nearly five months of a devastating war in the Gaza Strip, Israeli military operations launched in retaliation have left 30,410 dead, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
PHOTO AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A young Palestinian woman drags a container of water along a trash-filled street in Gaza City on March 3.
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.
“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 war has also caused a humanitarian catastrophe and famine is “almost inevitable” for 2.2 million people, the vast majority of Gaza’s population, according to Jens Laerke, spokesperson for OCHA, l United Nations agency for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.
Help on a massive scale
The UN Security Council on Saturday expressed “grave concern” and called for the unhindered delivery of “large-scale” humanitarian aid.
Faced with the difficulties of transporting it by road in the territory sealed off by Israel, several countries have carried out airdrops of aid to the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, including the United States on Saturday.
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 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 that the Israeli army opened fire on the hungry crowd and reported 118 dead and 760 injured.
A UN team said it found “a large number” of gunshot wounds in a hospital in the city where many victims had been admitted while the international community called for an investigation.
On Sunday, Israel spoke of shootings 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 (the army) towards the aid convoy”, affirmed the spokesperson for the Israeli army, Daniel Hagari, according to which “the “The majority of Palestinians were killed or injured as a result of the stampede.”