Discussions for a truce between Israel and Hamas associated with the release of hostages have made “significant” progress, Egyptian media announced on Monday, six months after the start of the war which devastated the Gaza Strip.
In parallel with a new series of negotiations in Cairo, Israel is maintaining its plans for a ground offensive on the city of Rafah, at the southern end of Palestinian territory, where nearly a million and a half people are massed, according to the UN, most of the displaced.
Israeli forces “preparing to continue their missions […] in the Rafah area,” on the border with Egypt, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday.
A few hours earlier, Israeli soldiers had withdrawn from Khan Younes, another town in the south of the coastal territory that has been in fighting for several months, in order to “prepare for future operations” according to the army.
Despite international pressure, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed his determination to eradicate Hamas “across the entire Gaza Strip, including Rafah”, which he presents as the last major bastion of the Islamist movement in power since 2007 in the territory.
On Sunday, immediately after the Israeli withdrawal, dozens of Palestinian refugees in Rafah returned to Khan Younes. On foot, by car or on carts pulled by donkeys, AFP photos show lonely men and women, walking in a city that has become a field of ruins.
“All the streets were bulldozed. And the smell… I saw people digging and taking out the bodies,” testified Maha Taher, 38, mother of four children.
“Significant progress”
The army’s announcements came alongside a new round of indirect negotiations in Cairo between Hamas and Israel via Egypt, the United States and Qatar.
These discussions, aimed at achieving a truce as well as the release of hostages held in Gaza since the start of the war on October 7, are experiencing “significant progress”, pro-government Egyptian media Al-Qahera News said on Monday, citing a highly placed Egyptian source.
The delegations of Qatar and Hamas left Cairo and will return there “within two days to finalize the terms of the agreement”, according to this media.
The American and Israeli delegations are due to leave the Egyptian capital “in the coming hours” and consultations will continue over the next 48 hours, explained the same source.
On Saturday, Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union, assured that it would not give up its demands: “a complete ceasefire”, an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza , a return of the displaced and a “serious” agreement to exchange hostages and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Mr. Netanyahu retorted on Sunday that there would be no ceasefire without the release of all the hostages.
“More than catastrophic” situation
The war was launched on October 7, when Hamas commandos infiltrated from the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented attack in southern Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to a report established by AFP based on official Israeli figures.
More than 250 people have been kidnapped and 129 remain detained in Gaza, including 34 who have died, according to Israeli officials.
On Sunday, there were thousands, massed in front of the headquarters of the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem, to support the families of the hostages. “To you, who are still there, hold on,” Agam Goldstein, 17, a hostage released at the end of November, said on stage.
In retaliation for the October 7 attack, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and launched an offensive that claimed the lives of 33,175 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas health ministry.
In addition to the human toll and destruction, the war has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in the territory of 2.4 million inhabitants, besieged by Israel, where the UN fears widespread famine.
Strictly controlled by Israel, humanitarian aid transported by land via Egypt arrives in trickles.
“My 8 year old son asks me for food, but I have nothing to give him […] I wish death for me and my children to be freed from this torment,” Labad, a mother of four who took refuge with relatives after the destruction of her house in Jabaliya, in the north, told AFP.
On Sunday, several United Nations agencies and humanitarian organizations described the situation in Gaza as “more than catastrophic”.
“Houses, schools, hospitals are in ruins. Teachers, doctors, humanitarian workers are killed. Famine is imminent,” said UNICEF head Catherine Russell on X.
After the death of seven aid workers, including an Australian, from the American NGO World Central Kitchen in an Israeli strike on 1er April, Canberra on Monday tasked a former military official with working with Israel to ensure “transparency” in the investigation.
The war also has repercussions on the border between Lebanon and Israel. The Israeli army claimed on Sunday to have completed a “new phase” in its preparation for “war” on this border where deadly exchanges of fire with Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, are intensifying.