American, Israeli and Hamas negotiators are expected in Cairo this weekend for yet another attempt to reach a truce associated with the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip ravaged by a devastating war which enters its 7th on Sunday.e month.
Triggered on October 7 by an unprecedented bloody attack by Hamas in Israel, the Israeli military offensive has known no respite, causing more than 33,100 deaths so far according to the Palestinian Islamist movement’s Ministry of Health and causing a humanitarian disaster with the majority of the 2.4 million inhabitants threatened with famine according to the UN.
According to US media, CIA chief Bill Burns is traveling to Cairo to meet with Israeli Mossad chief David Barnea, as well as Egyptian and Qatari officials. The White House confirmed talks this weekend.
American President Joe Biden, who is losing patience with the conduct of the war by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called on the latter “to conclude an agreement on the Israeli hostages” kidnapped during the Hamas attack.
But he also asked Qatar and Egypt, the mediators with the United States, “to get Hamas to commit to accepting an agreement,” said a senior American official under cover of anonymity.
According to him, “there would be a ceasefire in Gaza today if Hamas had agreed to release the vulnerable category of hostages – the sick, the wounded, the elderly and young women.”
But Hamas said Saturday that it “will not give up its demands” for a truce without mentioning the hostage releases in detail.
In a press release announcing the departure of a delegation from the movement on Sunday in Cairo, he cited its “demands”, namely “a complete ceasefire, a withdrawal of the occupying forces from Gaza, a return of the displaced, freedom of movement and aids [à la population] and a serious agreement to exchange hostages” and Palestinian prisoners.
Body of hostage recovered
After a first and last one-week truce at the end of November which allowed the release of around a hundred hostages in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, several series of indirect negotiations between the protagonists, via international mediators, took place. No result.
Israel and Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007, blame each other for the blockade.
The Israeli government says it is determined to continue the war until the “elimination of Hamas”, considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel.
On October 7, Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza carried out an attack in southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people in Israel, the majority civilians killed the same day, according to an AFP count. based on official Israeli figures.
More than 250 people were kidnapped during the attack and taken to Gaza where 129 remain detained, of whom more than 30 died according to the army.
On Saturday, the army announced that it had recovered during the night in Khan Younes (south) the body of hostage Elad Katzir, kidnapped from kibbutz Nir Oz. He was, according to her, “killed in captivity by the terrorist organization Islamic Jihad” which participated in the October 7 attack.
For his sister, Carmit Palty Katzir, freeing him alive “could have been possible if an agreement on the hostages had been reached in time. Our leaders are cowards and driven by political considerations.”
“Everything was destroyed”
In retaliation for the Hamas attack, the Israeli army launched a campaign of intense aerial bombardments on the Gaza Strip, followed by a ground offensive which allowed it to advance from the north to the south of the devastated territory it is besieging. since October 9.
According to a latest report from the Hamas Ministry of Health, 46 additional deaths have been recorded in the last 24 hours in Gaza, bringing to 33,137 the number of people killed, most of them civilians, in six months of war.
On Saturday, the army reported “terrorists killed” during operations in Khan Younes, and claimed to have “eliminated on Wednesday in the south of Gaza a senior Hamas terrorist official, Akram Abed al-Rahmane Salamé”.
Further south, in Rafah, there are nearly 1.5 million Palestinians, the majority displaced, who fear an Israeli ground offensive wanted by Mr. Netanyahu for whom this city is the “last great bastion of Hamas”. An offensive opposed by the American ally.
“We are ordinary people, human beings […] Why did they bomb our house? “, laments Siham Achour, 50, who found refuge in a tent in Rafah after fleeing Khan Younès. “Everything was destroyed. »
“So great impunity”
As the war enters its 7th month on Sunday, the head of the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Martin Griffiths, denounced the fact that despite “global outrage”, “so little has been done to combat it”. put an end to it, leaving room for such great impunity.”
The Netanyahu government is under strong international pressure to let more aid into Gaza, especially after the death on Monday of seven humanitarian workers from World Center Kitchen (WCK) — one Palestinian and six foreigners — killed in the Palestinian territory by an Israeli drone against their vehicle.
The Israeli army admitted that “serious errors” were at the origin of the strike, claiming to have wrongly believed it was targeting “Hamas agents”. WCK called for “an independent investigation.”
Strictly controlled by Israel, aid coming mainly from Egypt enters in dribs and drabs via the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israeli territory and southern Gaza.
On Friday, Israel announced plans to “temporarily” open other crossing points to deliver aid, as well as an “increase in aid through Kerem Shalom.”
Measures deemed “insufficient” by the UN.