The United States stressed in Bahrain on Saturday the need for an agreement on the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip to achieve a “significant” pause in the fighting between Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas.
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The situation in the Palestinian territory, shelled by Israel since October 7 in retaliation for an unprecedented attack by Hamas on its soil, is “horrible” and “intolerable”, recognized the first adviser to the American president for the Middle East, Brett McGurk.
But “the influx of humanitarian aid, the influx of fuel (and) a pause in the fighting will take place when the hostages are released,” he added during the annual security forum organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
“Intense” discussions are underway, mediated by Qatar, to achieve the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip since the October 7 attack, he said.
AFP
This attack left 1,200 people dead on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities, and the Israeli army estimates that around 240 people were taken hostage that day.
On the Palestinian side, the war has left 12,300 dead, including more than 5,000 children according to the Hamas government which took power in Gaza in 2007.
“The release of a large number of hostages would lead (…) to a significant pause in the fighting and a massive influx of humanitarian aid,” promised Brett McGurk while several Arab diplomats speaking at the conference accused Israel of violate international humanitarian law.
The UN Security Council has called for “urgent and prolonged humanitarian pauses” but Israel refuses any ceasefire until all hostages are released.
“We must work towards the release of the hostages and the implementation of humanitarian pauses,” said a senior European official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
AFP
At the opening of the conference on Friday evening, Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa, whose country normalized relations with Israel in 2020, also called for the release of the hostages and an end to the conflict that threatens to set the region ablaze.
The continuation of the war fuels extremism and criticism against “moderate” Arab states such as Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates which have links with Israel, or Saudi Arabia which had engaged in discussions in this direction, underlined for his part the diplomatic advisor to the Emirati president, Anwar Gargash.
The head of Jordanian diplomacy, Ayman Safadi, however considered it “unacceptable” to link the humanitarian pauses to the question of hostages, considering that Israel had taken all the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip “hostage”, while the humanitarian situation in this territory is disastrous according to NGOs.
AFP
“Israel claims to want to destroy Hamas (…) I do not understand how this objective can be achieved,” he said, reiterating the call from Arab countries for an immediate ceasefire, and the resumption negotiations on a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on the principle of two states.
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, estimated for his part that “Hamas can no longer control the Gaza Strip”, affirming that the Palestinian Authority was “ready to take this responsibility” with the help of the community. international.
This will also require “a strong participation of Arab countries” both economically and politically, he added.
His Jordanian counterpart, however, warned that “there will be no Arab troops in Gaza”, warning against any attempt to displace the population of the Palestinian territory, where more than two thirds of the 2.4 million residents have already been displaced by the war, according to the UN.
Jordan and Egypt, which share borders with Israel, with which they have a peace treaty, “will never allow this to happen. This would not only be a war crime, but also a direct threat to our national security,” Ayman Safadi said.