Israel and Hamas at war, day 47 | No truce or release of hostages before Friday

(Jerusalem) The entry into force of a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas providing for the release of 50 hostages held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners will not take place before Friday, Israeli officials announced Thursday .

While the Gaza Strip remained the scene of fighting on Wednesday, media reports said the planned four-day truce would come into effect at 3 a.m. Thursday and a Hamas official said he expected “an initial exchange of 10 hostages for 30 prisoners from Thursday.”

But the head of Israel’s National Security Council, Tzachi Hanegbi, said the release of the hostages would not happen “before Friday” and that negotiations “continue incessantly.”

And there will be “no pause” in the fighting on Thursday, an Israeli official immediately indicated.

US President Joe Biden spoke separately with Qatar Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

According to the White House, MM. Biden and al-Thani pledged “to remain in close contact until the agreement is fully implemented.”

The Israeli government approved this agreement which concerns the release of at least 50 hostages, women and children, despite internal dissensions, with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (far right) referring to a “historic error”.

In Israel, the main association of hostage families declared itself “happy” with the announcement of an agreement for a “partial release”, but said it did not know for the moment “who will be released and when” .

“It gives me hope that my daughters will return,” said Maayan Zin, a mother of two children held in Gaza.

The agreement was announced on 47^e day of the war, triggered by an attack of unprecedented scale and violence in the history of Israel carried out on October 7 by Hamas on Israeli soil. According to the authorities, 1,200 people, the vast majority civilians, were killed.

Around 240 people were kidnapped on the day of the attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement.

In retaliation for the October 7 attack, Israel, which promised to “annihilate” Hamas, relentlessly bombed the Gaza Strip, where more than 14,000 people were killed, including more than 5,800 children, according to the Gaza government. Islamist movement in power since 2007 in this territory of some 360 ​​km². The Gaza Strip has also been besieged since October 9 by Israel, which has cut off water, electricity and fuel supplies.

“Mountain of the dead”

The bombings devastated the territory and caused a serious humanitarian crisis according to the UN, including the displacement of more than 1.7 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million inhabitants, where aid is arriving in trickles.

Detailing the terms of the agreement, Qatar Foreign Affairs spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said that “every day a certain number of hostages will be released, and this number is expected to reach 50 by 4^e day of truce. The agreement does not provide for the release of kidnapped soldiers.

Israel has released a list of 300 Palestinian prisoners likely to be released (33 women, 123 adolescents under the age of 18, and 144 young people around the age of 18). Among them are 49 Hamas members.

According to the Israeli authorities, other exchanges could take place as part of an extension of the truce, with a total of 100 hostages for 300 Palestinian prisoners.

At the Vatican, Pope Francis separately received relatives of hostages and Palestinians with family in Gaza. He warned of “a mountain of deaths” in this war.

In East Jerusalem, the part of the city occupied by Israel since 1967, Palestinian Samira Douayyat cannot contain her emotions as she talks about the possible release of her daughter Shourouk, 26, who will have served half of her 16-year prison sentence. prison. “I cry, I laugh, I tremble,” she told AFP.

“Insufficient”

The humanitarian pause will also allow the entry of “a greater number of humanitarian and aid convoys, including fuel,” Qatar said.

Some 200 to 300 aid trucks will enter Gaza, including eight with fuel and gas, said Hamas executive Taher al-Nounou.

Palestinian President Mamhmoud Abbas, like his Egyptian counterparts Abdel Fattah al-Sissi and American Joe Biden, welcomed the agreement reached. This “humanitarian truce must make it possible to negotiate the conditions of a ceasefire” which must be “as lasting as possible”, pleaded French President Emmanuel Macron.

The UN called it an “important step” but said “much remains to be done”.

This limited truce is “insufficient” to bring the necessary aid into Gaza, several international NGOs have stressed, calling for a ceasefire.

The territory has become “the most dangerous place in the world for a child”, also denounced the head of UNICEF, Catherine Russell, expressing alarm at the risks of epidemic and massive increase in cases of malnutrition.

“What truce? »

Despite the agreement, Israel said the war would continue to “eliminate Hamas and ensure that there is no further threat […] from Gaza.”

“We confirm that our hands will remain on the trigger,” warned Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

On Wednesday, the Israeli army continued its bombings on Gaza, where it has also been carrying out a ground offensive since October 27.

According to civil defense, more than 30 people were killed after strikes on houses in northern Gaza.

“They are talking about a truce, but what truce? A truce with injured people, dead people, destroyed houses? We don’t want a truce if we can’t return to our homes, we don’t want a truce for a little food,” said Maysara al-Sabbagh, 42, who took refuge in Khan Younes, in the southern Gaza Strip.

“What does the truce mean if I can’t go home,” added Saddam al-Sawafiri. “We have been sleeping on the streets for 40 or 45 days. »

The war also raises fears of a regional escalation involving, among others, the Lebanese Hezbollah, at the heart of clashes on Wednesday, and the Yemeni Houthi rebels, who claimed responsibility for a “cruise missile” shot intercepted by Israel.

Abbas Raad, the son of the leader of the Hezbollah group in the Lebanese parliament Mohamed Raad, was killed Wednesday in an Israeli bombardment fatal to four other fighters in southern Lebanon, announced the Shiite movement allied with Hamas.

The Israeli army confirmed airstrikes against Hezbollah without mentioning any toll. In his telephone interview with Benjamin Netanyahu, Joe Biden stressed the importance of “calm” on the border with Lebanon and in the occupied West Bank.