(Jerusalem) Israel returns to the negotiating table on Friday in Qatar for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, at a time when the war is continuing with new Israeli fire in the south of the Palestinian territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday ordered the head of the Mossad to travel to Qatar to take part in new talks on a ceasefire that could lead to the release of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas.
The head of the Israeli special services, David Barnea, is therefore expected in Doha on Friday where he is to meet Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the Prime Minister of Qatar, one of the mediators in the conflict in Gaza, said a source close to the negotiations.
In response to the unprecedented attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas against Israel, the Israeli army launched a major offensive against the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian Islamist movement has been in power since 2007.
PHOTO AMIR COHEN, REUTERS
An Israeli tank maneuvers near the Israel-Gaza border.
The pro-Iranian Hezbollah, in support of Hamas, has opened a front with its Israeli neighbor and since then exchanges of fire in the border areas have been daily, sometimes gaining in intensity and coupled with bellicose rhetoric.
On Thursday, the Lebanese movement fired more than 200 rockets and explosive drones at northern Israel and the occupied Golan, raising fears of a new conflict in the region, the day after a first barrage of rockets.
These shots, Hezbollah warned, are in response to the elimination on Wednesday by Israel of one of its commanders in southern Lebanon.
PHOTO GIL ELIYAHU, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire following a Hezbollah attack on the Golan.
After reporting alerts throughout northern Israel, as far as the occupied Golan, the Israeli army said that “about 200 projectiles” had been identified. Most were intercepted and falling debris caused fires in several areas.
She later specified, on Telegram, that she had struck two Hezbollah infrastructures in southern Lebanon.
A soldier was killed by rocket fire in northern Israel, a military source said.
In retaliation, the army carried out strikes against “military installations” in southern Lebanon.
“In the harsh campaign against Lebanon, we established a principle: whoever harms us is a dead man,” Netanyahu said during a visit to the air force headquarters in Tel Aviv.
” Where to go ? ”
Israel’s main ally, the United States, has warned that a war between Israel and Hezbollah could spark a “regional conflict.”
On October 7, Hamas commandos infiltrated into southern Israel from Gaza carried out an attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.
PHOTO AMIR COHEN, REUTERS
A fire in Gaza.
Of the 251 people abducted during the attack, 116 are still being held in Gaza, of whom 42 have died, according to the army.
In response, Mr Netanyahu vowed to destroy Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel.
The Israeli army launched an air and then ground offensive in Gaza that has so far killed 38,011 people, mostly civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.
Seven people were killed Thursday in Israeli strikes, including five at a school in Gaza City, in the north of the Palestinian territory besieged and bombarded by Israel for nearly nine months, according to the Civil Defense. Fighting continued mainly in the Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City.
Witnesses reported Israeli artillery fire overnight from Thursday to Friday and airstrikes earlier in the southern Gaza Strip, in Khan Younis as well as in Rafah, a town on the border with Egypt, where a violent shootout took place, according to witnesses.
Seven bodies were found Thursday in the Tal Al-Sultan neighborhood, west of Rafah, including “three in a state of decomposition,” a Civil Defense official told AFP.
In recent weeks, fighting has resumed in several regions that the army had said it controlled, including Shujaiya.
Since the army’s evacuation order, tens of thousands of Palestinians have left areas of eastern Rafah and Khan Younis, once again thrown onto the roads of the devastated territory, in search of water, food and shelter.
“We left, but we don’t know where to go,” said Umm Malek Al-Najjar, who left eastern Khan Younis with her children.
” A lot to do ”
In the Palestinian territory, which is in the grip of a catastrophe for humanity, 1.9 million inhabitants of Gaza, or 80% of the population, are now displaced, according to the UN.
PHOTO BASHAR TALEB, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A building in Khan Younis.
As all attempts at a Gaza truce deal have failed in recent months, Mr Netanyahu’s office announced on Thursday that “the prime minister has informed the president [américain Joe] Biden on his decision to send a delegation to continue negotiations for the release of the hostages.
“He recalled that Israel was above all determined to end the war only if all its objectives are achieved,” it said.
Mr Biden welcomed Mr Netanyahu’s decision.
The latest elements provided by Hamas “could provide the basis for a deal,” said a senior U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity. But “there is still a lot of work to be done on some of the implementation steps,” he said, warning that it would be “difficult.”
Until now, the belligerents have maintained inflexible positions.
Benjamin Netanyahu says he wants to continue the war until “the destruction of Hamas and the release of all hostages.” And Hamas is demanding a permanent ceasefire and a total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza before any agreement on the release of hostages.