Discussions are due to resume on Sunday in Cairo on the means to reach a truce in the war in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian Hamas, against a backdrop of reciprocal accusations from the belligerents of hindering any agreement.
On the ground, new Israeli strikes targeted the Gaza Strip and in particular Rafah, killing 32 people in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health of the Islamist movement Hamas, which reported a total death toll of 34,654. since the start of the war in the Palestinian territory.
In the seventh month of the war triggered by an unprecedented bloody attack by Hamas on October 7 against Israel, the director of the World Food Program (WFP), Cindy McCain, was alarmed to see northern Gaza hit by a “real famine », which progresses towards the south.
On Saturday, a Hamas delegation led by Khalil al-Hayya held a first round of discussions in Cairo with mediators who were awaiting the Palestinian movement’s response.
There were “no developments” on Saturday and new discussions are planned for Sunday, said an official from Hamas, the movement which took power in Gaza in 2007.
A senior Israeli official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, that signs of progress would be seen if Mossad chief David Barnea took an Israeli delegation to Cairo.
According to him, “long and difficult negotiations are expected to reach a real agreement”.
According to the American site Axios, the head of the CIA, William Burns, is in the Egyptian capital.
The day after Hamas’ accusations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is obstructing any agreement by wanting to launch an assault on Rafah, an Israeli official, in turn, accused the Palestinian movement on Saturday of blocking any agreement by insisting on its demand for a stopping the war.
The offer from the mediators (Egypt, Qatar, United States) presented to Hamas at the end of April provides for a truce associated with the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for that of hostages kidnapped during the October 7 attack.
PHOTO ABDEL KAREEM HANA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Palestinians pray next to the bodies of their loved ones killed in an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah.
“You undermine any agreement”
Hamas is “hindering” the possibility of reaching a truce agreement, an Israeli official told AFP in Jerusalem on condition of anonymity.
A Hamas official reiterated to AFP on Saturday that his movement would “under no circumstances accept an agreement that does not explicitly provide for an end to the war.”
“Our information confirms that (Benjamin) Netanyahu is personally slowing down an agreement through personal calculations,” also affirmed this official, who requested anonymity.
On Friday, Hamas said it was going to Cairo with an “open mind”, while insisting on its demands: “a total cessation of Israeli aggression” and “the withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Israel has always rejected these conditions from Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organization along with the United States and the European Union, and which it vowed to annihilate after the October 7 attack.
That day, Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza in southern Israel launched an attack which left more than 1,170 dead, mainly civilians, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli data.
During the attack, more than 250 people were kidnapped and 128 remain captive in Gaza, 35 of whom died, according to the army.
In retaliation, Israeli forces launched a large-scale offensive – air then land – in the Palestinian territory of Gaza which has so far left 34,654 dead, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
In the evening, thousands of people, including relatives of hostages, demonstrated in Tel Aviv to demand from the Netanyahu government the conclusion of a truce agreement allowing the return of the hostages.
A sign adorned with Mr. Netanyahu’s portrait reads: “It is you who undermine any agreement.”
“Beyond acceptable”
While efforts and calls for a truce are increasing, Benjamin Netanyahu continues to declare his intention to lead a ground offensive on Rafah, a city which according to him constitutes the last major Hamas stronghold in the Palestinian territory.
“We will do what is necessary to win and defeat our enemy, including in Rafah,” Mr. Netanyahu reiterated this week, stressing that he would launch this offensive “with or without an agreement” of truce.
For Hossam Badran, a member of the Hamas political bureau, Mr. Netanyahu’s threats against Rafah “clearly aim to derail any possibility of agreement.”
The United States, Israel’s main ally, has repeatedly expressed its opposition to an assault on this city, where there are 1.2 million Palestinians, most of them displaced by the war.
The United States cannot support such an operation “because the damage it would cause would be beyond what is acceptable”, affirmed Secretary of State Antony Blinken, while the student movement against the Israeli offensive continues in the world.
“The famine is coming”
Rafah, located on Egypt’s closed border, is the main land crossing point for humanitarian aid.
An offensive would be “a major blow to humanitarian operations across the Gaza Strip,” the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs warned.
International aid, strictly controlled by Israel, arrives in trickles in the Gaza Strip and remains very insufficient to meet the needs of some 2.4 million Gazans.
PHOTO AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
In Beit Lahya, in the northern Gaza Strip
“When you have conflicts like this, with so much emotion, where so much is happening, famine happens,” said WFP Director Cindy McCain, according to an excerpt of an interview broadcast Friday by NBC . In Gaza, “the famine is there, a real famine in the north, and which is moving towards the south,” she said.
She again called for a ceasefire and the possibility for the WFP “to have unhindered access to enter” Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid.