The truce agreement between Israel and Hamas on the release of 50 hostages in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners will not come into force before Friday, Israeli and Palestinian officials announced Thursday against a backdrop of continued fighting in the Gaza Strip. .
Qatar, a key mediator, announced on Wednesday a renewable four-day truce in the fighting, coupled with an exchange of hostages held in Gaza and Palestinians detained in three Israeli prisons.
The agreement provides for an exchange “of 10 hostages for 30 prisoners” on the first day of the truce, for a total of 50 civilian hostages released in four days for 150 Palestinians. Israel has released a list of 300 prisoners, 33 women and 267 young people under the age of 19, including 49 members of Hamas, likely to be released.
But the head of the Israeli National Security Council, Tzachi Hanegbi, declared overnight that the release of the hostages would not take place “before Friday”, with both camps blaming each other for the postponement.
An Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity that Hamas had made “new requests”, while according to a senior member of the Palestinian movement who requested anonymity, discussions stumbled over the “names of the Israeli hostages and the terms of their delivery” to a third party.
The international community welcomed this agreement, seeing it as a first step towards a lasting ceasefire. This truce “cannot only be a pause,” the Palestinian ambassador to the UN pleaded on Wednesday, calling for it to be used to prevent the Israeli “resumption of aggression”.
Strikes on Khan Younes
The agreement was announced on 47e 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.
In retaliation, Israel, which has promised to “annihilate” the Palestinian Islamist movement, is relentlessly bombing the Gaza Strip, where more than 14,000 people have been killed, including more than 5,800 children, according to the Hamas government which took action there. power in 2007.
The fighting continued throughout the night over the territory of some 360 km2besieged since October 9 by Israel, which has cut off water, electricity and fuel supplies there and has been carrying out a ground offensive since October 27.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported “dozens” of deaths in different sectors of Gaza.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is taking part in the fighting, reported clashes in the heart of the northern city of Gaza. In the south, the strikes targeted the region of Khan Younes, from where immense columns of black smoke rose, lit by bomb explosions.
“I think there are still around 20 people under the rubble,” a Palestinian searching for survivors in a destroyed building in Bani Souheila, east of the city, told AFP.
Dozens of unidentified people, who died in hospitals in the north of the territory, were buried Wednesday in a mass grave in a cemetery in Khan Younes.
In Gaza City (north), the director of al-Chifa hospital, Mohammed Abou Salmiya, was arrested with several other executives, according to a doctor at the largest establishment in Gaza. The Israeli army controls the hospital where it is searching underground military infrastructures used according to them by Hamas.
” Difficult choice ”
The Israeli government approved the truce agreement despite internal dissension.
“I often have to decide between a difficult choice and an even more difficult choice, and this is particularly the case with the hostages,” Benyamin Netanyahu stressed on Wednesday evening.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi, a supporter of Hamas and whose country does not recognize Israel, for his part considered that “the temporary ceasefire” was “a great victory” for the Islamist movement.
The main association of hostage families declared itself “happy” with an agreement for a “partial release” of hostages, without knowing 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.
In occupied East Jerusalem, Palestinian Samira Douayyat spoke of the possible release of her daughter Shourouk, 26, who will have served half of her 16-year prison sentence. “I cry, I laugh, I tremble,” she told AFP.
Insufficient truce
The bombings have devastated the Palestinian territory and caused a serious humanitarian crisis according to the UN, including the displacement of more than 1.7 million of the 2.4 million inhabitants of Gaza, where aid is trickling in.
The humanitarian pause associated with the truce will 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.
But this truce is “insufficient” to bring the necessary aid into Gaza, several international NGOs have stressed, calling for a real ceasefire while many trucks are waiting for the Israeli green light to pass through the Rafah crossing.
“Before the war, we worked two or three days before a break. Today, we have been in the same place for seven days without moving,” Egyptian driver Alaa Moustafa told AFP. Before these hostilities, the Gaza Strip had been subject to a strict Israeli blockade for 16 years.
Despite the agreement, Israel said the war would continue. “We are not stopping the war. We will continue until victory, we continue (military operations) in other sectors” controlled by Hamas, Israeli Chief of Staff General Herzi Halevi said Thursday during a review of troops in Gaza, according to the Israeli army.
“We confirm that our hands will remain on the trigger,” warned the Islamist movement, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
“Are they talking about a truce? A truce with injuries, deaths and 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.
Hezbollah and Houthis
The war has raised fears of a regional escalation as Hamas’s pro-Iranian allies, Lebanese Hezbollah and the Yemeni Houthis, target Israeli territory.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for at least ten attacks on various Israeli border positions on Thursday, claiming to have caused victims. The Israeli army responded with artillery fire on southern Lebanon, according to the official Lebanese agency.
In the Red Sea, a US warship intercepted explosive drones launched from Yemen by Houthi rebels on Thursday, according to the United States.
Update on the situation at 48e war day
The war between Israel and Hamas, entering its 48the day Thursday, was triggered by the bloody attack of the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7 on Israeli soil from the Gaza Strip, where it took power in 2007.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to “annihilate” Hamas, relentlessly shelling the besieged territory where 2.4 million Palestinians are crowded, and launched a ground operation on October 27.
Around 240 people were kidnapped on the day of the Hamas attack and taken to the Gaza Strip, according to the army.
An agreement between Israel and Hamas, concluded under the aegis of Qatar, for a humanitarian truce in Gaza and the release of hostages kidnapped on October 7 in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, will not come into force until least Friday.
Here are the latest developments:
No break until Friday
The entry into force of a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas was due to take place on Thursday. Announced on Wednesday, it provided for the release of hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
But the head of Israel’s National Security Council, Tzachi Hanegbi, said the release of the hostages would take place “not before Friday” and that negotiations were continuing.
A Palestinian official told AFP that “last minute” discussions focused on “the names of the Israeli hostages and the terms of their handover” to a third party.
“Hamas will release 10 female and child hostages – under the age of 19 – and at the same time, 30 Palestinian prisoners will be released and the agreement will continue like this,” accompanied by a pause in the fighting in Gaza and limited overflights Israeli fighter planes in the north, he detailed.
There will be “no pause” in the fighting on Thursday, an Israeli official told AFP.
Humanitarian convoys
The truce should also allow the entry of “a greater number of humanitarian and aid convoys, including fuel,” Qatar said on Wednesday.
Some 200 to 300 aid trucks will enter Gaza, including eight with fuel and gas, also specified a Hamas executive, Taher al-Nounou.
This limited truce is “insufficient” to bring the necessary aid into Gaza, several international NGOs have stressed, calling for a ceasefire.
Director of al-Chifa hospital arrested
Khaled Abou Samra, head of department at al-Chifa hospital in Gaza City, announced early Thursday the arrest of the director of the establishment, currently under the control of the Israeli army which says it is looking for military installations there. of Hamas.
“Doctor Mohammed Abou Salmiya was arrested with several other healthcare executives,” he said. The Dr Abou Salmiya told AFP that he had received an evacuation “order” on November 18 after refusing a previous one, while the Israeli army claimed to have evacuated hundreds of patients and displaced people from al-Chifa to the “request” from the same doctor.
Night fighting and bombardments
The night was particularly hard in the south of the Gaza Strip, with continued strikes on Khan Younes. AFP journalists in Rafah reported that these strikes, although several kilometers away, caused houses in the town bordering Egypt to shake.
Islamic Jihad, for its part, reported fighting in the heart of Gaza City, in the north, where Israeli troops are also operating on the ground.
Balance sheets
According to a latest report Tuesday from the Hamas government, 14,128 people have been killed in Israeli bombings on the Gaza Strip since October 7, including more than 5,840 children and 3,920 women.
On the Israeli side, the Hamas attack left 1,200 dead, mainly civilians killed on October 7, according to the authorities. According to the army, 68 soldiers have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war.