The truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas was extended at the last minute for a seventh day on Thursday, the morning of which was marked by an attack by Palestinians in Jerusalem during which three people were killed and several others injured.
The pause came into effect on November 24 after more than seven weeks of Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip carried out in retaliation for a bloody attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas on Israeli soil launched from Palestinian territory.
Some 240 people were taken hostage during this unprecedented attack and taken to the Gaza Strip, according to Israel.
A few minutes before the truce expired on Thursday, the Israeli army announced on X (formerly Twitter) that “the operational pause will continue in light of the efforts of the mediators”.
Hamas also announced that the truce would continue for a “seventh day”, which was confirmed by Qatar, the main mediator with the support of the United States and Egypt.
The truce, which began on Friday for four days and then extended for the first time for two days, has already enabled the release of 70 Israeli hostages and 210 Palestinian prisoners.
Twenty-seven foreigners or dual nationals, mostly Thais working in Israel, were also released outside the framework of the agreement.
A sign of the fragility of this temporary ceasefire, before the announcement of its extension, the Ezzedine al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, and the Israeli army declared themselves ready to resume the fight.
Adding to the volatility of the situation, three people were killed Thursday morning and several others injured in an attack by two Palestinians affiliated with Hamas on a bus stop in west Jerusalem, according to Israeli police.
“Two terrorists who came by car and armed one with an M-16 and the other with a pistol” opened fire around 7:40 a.m., Jerusalem Police Director Doron Torgeman said at the scene. of the attack.
The Magen David Adom (Mada), Israel’s equivalent of the Red Cross, identified one of the dead as “a young woman of 24 years old”. The two attackers “were killed,” police said.
Police teams formed a security cordon, taking away the bodies of the victims and suspected attackers, and inspecting the scene.
New releases
The Israel-Hamas truce “has yielded results,” including the release of hostages, and should continue, said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who arrived in Israel early Thursday, where he is meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, before to go to the occupied West Bank.
The sixth exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Hamas hostages took place overnight from Wednesday to Thursday.
Ten Israeli hostages, including five dual nationals (one Dutch, three Germans and one American), as well as two Russians and four Thais, were handed over by Hamas to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), before being taken to Israel .
In exchange, thirty Palestinians (16 minors and 14 women) detained in several Israeli prisons were subsequently released.
During the night, Hamas claimed to have offered to release seven women and children and return the bodies of three hostages killed, according to it, in bombings on Gaza in exchange for an extension of the truce, but that Israel had refused. .
The Israeli army said Wednesday that it was verifying Hamas’ announcement of the death of a ten-month-old baby, the youngest of the hostages, his mother and his 4-year-old brother.
Among the Palestinians released during the night are Ahed Tamimi, a 22-year-old activist, icon of the fight against the Israeli occupation.
She was arrested on November 6 for a post on Instagram which, according to Israeli sources, called for the massacre of Israelis and made reference to Hitler.
Her mother Narimane, whose husband was also arrested, denied that Ahed was the author of the post, as her social media accounts were systematically blocked by Israel.
Among the other released prisoners, Souheir Al-Barghouti told AFPTV: “we were freed thanks to the blood shed” in Gaza.
Also just released, Lama Khater assured AFPTV that the Israeli officer who released her had told her “we can arrest you again and the sentence will be more severe”.
Palestinian killed in West Bank
If the released prisoners were welcomed with joy, clashes broke out in the night between Palestinians and Israeli security forces outside Ofer prison, near Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.
A Palestinian was killed, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Since the start of the war, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, nearly 250 Palestinians have been killed by soldiers or settlers in the West Bank.
The war began on October 7 when Hamas commandos launched an attack in Israel on an unprecedented scale. Around 1,200 people, the vast majority civilians, were killed, according to Israel.
In retaliation, Israel promised to “annihilate” Hamas, in power since 2007 in Gaza, shelling the Palestinian territory and launching a ground offensive on October 27 until the start of the truce. According to the Hamas government, 14,854 people, including 6,150 under the age of 18, were killed in Israeli strikes.
The temporary ceasefire agreement has accelerated the entry of humanitarian aid, which previously arrived in trickles, but the volume of aid “is still totally insufficient”, denounced Wednesday the secretary general of the UN Antonio Guterres.
“We think we need a real humanitarian ceasefire,” he pleaded, decrying “a monumental humanitarian catastrophe.”
Already subject to an Israeli blockade since 2007, the Gaza Strip was placed under total siege by Israel on October 9.
According to the UN, 1.7 million of its 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced by the war, and more than half of the homes have been damaged or destroyed.
“I wish I had died”
Thousands of displaced people took advantage of the truce to return to their homes in the north of the Gaza Strip, the most devastated part of the territory, ignoring the ban by the Israeli army which took control of several sectors there.
“If I had known that life in the south would be like this, I would not have left, I would have preferred to die,” Waed Taha, a Palestinian who left her home after two weeks of war, told AFP in “an area considered very dangerous” in the north of the Gaza Strip.
“After my arrival in Khan Younes and at the camp, I remained in a state of shock for a whole day, without speaking, after seeing the tents. We saw the photos and images of the 1948 Nakba on television, but (now) I see them for real,” she continues.
The “Nakba” (“Catastrophe”) refers to the 760,000 Palestinians driven into exile after the creation of Israel in 1948.