The truce between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip came into force on Friday, and must be accompanied by the release in the afternoon of 13 hostages against Palestinian prisoners, first signs of respite after weeks of war .
What there is to know
- The truce went into effect Friday at 7 a.m. local time (12 a.m. Eastern). It provides for the release of 13 hostages – women, children and young people under the age of 19 – around 4 p.m. local time (9 a.m. Eastern time), followed in the evening by the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israel , the exact number of which was not specified.
- With a ratio of one hostage to three Palestinians, the exchange should involve a total of 50 hostages for 150 Palestinians at the end of this four-day truce, which could be extended.
- From sunrise, even before the truce began, thousands of Palestinians displaced by the conflict flocked to the roads in the south of the territory to “go home”.
- The bombings stopped in Khan Younes, in the south of the small besieged territory where the inhabitants who fled the surrounding villages or the North shelled by the Israeli army came out en masse from the hospitals and schools where they had found refuge.
- The truce agreement also provides for the daily entry, via the Rafah crossing, of trucks of humanitarian and medical aid, fuel and gas into the Gaza Strip, which has been under a “complete siege” since October 7. the part of Israel.
- Calm also reigns Friday in the border area between southern Lebanon and northern Israel, where exchanges of fire have taken place daily in recent weeks between the Israeli army and the powerful Lebanese movement Hezbollah, ally of Hamas.
Balance sheets
- According to a latest report released Thursday by the Hamas government, 14,854 people have been killed in Israeli bombings on the Gaza Strip since October 7, including 6,150 children and 4,000 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.
Qatar, a key mediator with Egypt and the United States, obtained an agreement on Wednesday for a renewable four-day truce during which 50 hostages held in Gaza must be released like 150 Palestinian detainees.
The war was sparked by an unprecedented bloody attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas on Israeli soil. In retaliation, Israel relentlessly bombed the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Palestinian movement that the Israeli government promised to “annihilate”.
The humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory is disastrous according to NGOs and the UN.
The “humanitarian pause” came into effect at 7 a.m. (12 a.m. Eastern Time) and the first releases of hostages (13 women and children) are expected around 4 p.m. (9 a.m. Eastern Time).
Hamas’ military wing said that for every hostage released, three Palestinian prisoners, women and youth, would be freed.
” I’m going home ”
At first light, when the incessant airstrikes for nearly 50 days had stopped, tens of thousands of Palestinians in the south of the Gaza Strip had already packed up: here boxes, there, plastic bags filled with personal belongings, to return as a family to their villages.
PHOTO IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA, REUTERS
Omar Jibrine, 16, had taken refuge with eight other members of his family at the Nasser hospital in Khan Younes, in the south of the Gaza Strip.
A quarter of an hour before the truce even came into force, he took the road east, towards his village a few kilometers from Khan Younes: “I’m going home,” he said to the AFP.
But as cars and carts set off, leaflets in Arabic launched from the air by the Israeli army warn: “the war is not over yet”.
“Returning to the north is prohibited and very dangerous! », Underline the leaflets, the Israeli army considering the north of the Gaza Strip, from where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled towards the south, as a combat zone.
Israeli security officials, accompanied by Red Cross personnel and Egyptian agents, will be deployed to the “Egyptian hall” of the Rafah border crossing, in order to receive the hostages released from Gaza who will then fly from al-Arich airport to Israel, an Egyptian security source told AFP.
“Far from the press”
A source within Hamas told AFP that the release of the hostages in Rafah would be done “far from the press”.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that it had a “first list of names” of hostages and was in contact with their families, while relatives of the captives have been putting pressure on the government for weeks to obtain their release.
Israeli Maayan Zin learned that her two minor daughters were not among those scheduled to be released Friday.
“This is incredibly difficult for me,” she wrote on X, although “relieving for the other families.”
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.
Israel has released a list of 300 Palestinians likely to be released in total if the truce is extended, including 33 women and 267 young people under the age of 19. Among these detainees, 49 are members of Hamas.
“We set the condition that […] Palestinian women and children prisoners” be released “in order of seniority” in detention, declared Bassem Naïm, senior Hamas executive.
An Egyptian security source told AFP that an Egyptian delegation would be present in Jerusalem and Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, to ensure “respect for the list” of released Palestinian prisoners.
The international community welcomed the truce agreement, seeing it as a first step towards a possible lasting ceasefire.
“Next phases”
On the diplomatic front, British Foreign Minister David Cameron is due to meet with Palestinian officials on Friday, after meeting Mr. Netanyahu on Thursday.
At the UN, Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour called on all those who contributed to the truce agreement “to find a way to prevent the resumption of aggression.” “This cannot just be a pause before the massacre resumes,” he insisted.
At the end of this truce, the Israeli government and the army committed to “continue” the fighting, in order to “eliminate” Hamas, classified as a “terrorist” organization by Israel, the United States, its main ally, and the EU.
“Taking control of the northern Gaza Strip is the first step in a long war and we are preparing for the next phases,” army spokesman Daniel Hagari said.
PHOTO AMMAR AWAD, REUTERS
Israeli soldiers patrol as Muslim Palestinians hold Friday prayers, amid a temporary truce in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, in Jerusalem November 24, 2023. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
According to Israeli authorities, 1,200 people, the vast majority civilians, were killed and around 240 people kidnapped on October 7, the day of the Hamas attack of a scale and violence never seen in the history of Israel. Israel.
In retaliation, Israel relentlessly bombed the Gaza Strip, where 14,854 people including 6,150 children were killed, according to the Hamas government.
Entry of humanitarian trucks
The Israeli bombings of recent weeks have devastated the Palestinian territory and caused a serious humanitarian crisis according to the UN, including the displacement of around 1.7 million of the 2.4 million inhabitants of Gaza, where aid is entering dropper.
The truce should also allow the entry of a greater number of aid convoys, and on Friday, “three trucks carrying 150,000 liters of fuel and four gas trucks entered (into the Gaza Strip via Rafah), i.e. 84 tonnes,” Waël Abou Omar, director of communications at the Rafah crossing point on the Palestinian side, told AFP.
In addition, a total of 230 trucks containing food aid are due to enter during the day, around fifty of which have already crossed over to the Palestinian side.
PHOTO SAID KHATIB, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
According to UNRWA, 160,000 liters of fuel are needed every day to ensure “only basic humanitarian operations”.
This aid is intended only for the southern Gaza Strip and is being delivered to the UN and the Red Crescent, officials said.
But the truce remains “insufficient” to bring in the necessary aid, international NGOs stressed, calling for a real ceasefire.
The war also affects Israel’s northern border, where exchanges of fire have taken place daily in recent weeks between the Israeli army and the powerful Lebanese movement Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas. A few hours after the start of the truce, clamor reigned in this sector on Friday, according to the official Lebanese agency, an AFP photographer and residents.