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[Live] Hamas says it is close to a deal with Israel for a truce in Gaza
Talks accelerated on Tuesday (November 21st) for the release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for a truce in the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian Islamist movement accused Israel of a deadly strike on a besieged hospital.
Plumes of smoke over the southern Gaza Strip on November 20, 2023. REUTERS - ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO
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Key takeaways:
■ Hamas says it is close to an agreement with Israel for a truce in Gaza. The movement delivered its response to Qatar's brothers and mediators. We are getting closer to reaching a truce agreement," Palestinian Islamist movement leader Ismail Haniyeh was quoted as saying in a brief message on the Palestinian movement's Telegram account on Tuesday. There was no immediate reaction from the Israeli government to the claims.
More than 100 wounded were evacuated from the Indonesian hospital to the Nasser compound in Khan Younis, Hamas said Monday night. The day before, a strike killed at least 12 patients at the Indonesian hospital, located on the edge of the large Palestinian refugee camp of Jabaliya, according to the Hamas Health Ministry.
■ The first field hospital from Jordan has entered Gaza. 40 trucks containing the equipment and 17 Jordanian medical workers and technicians entered from Egypt through the Rafah crossing.
■ On Monday, 28 of the 31 premature babies evacuated from Gaza's al-Shifa hospital arrived in Egypt, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
■ The death toll from Israeli shelling in the Gaza Strip has risen to 13,300since the war began on October 7, including 5,600 children, according to the health ministry of Hamas, which rules the Palestinian enclave. Since then, more than 1,200 Israelis have been killed. The Israeli army reports that 239 people are being held hostage by the Palestinian Islamist movement.
Times given in Universal Time (UTC),
6:30 a.m.: A truce in Gaza is near?
A small dose of optimism, says our permanent correspondent in Jerusalem, Michel Paul, this morning. It is provoked first of all by this simple sentence of the Hamas leader: "The movement has delivered its response to the brothers of Qatar and to the mediators. We are getting closer to reaching a truce agreement," Palestinian Islamist movement leader Ismail Haniyeh was quoted as saying in a brief message on the Palestinian movement's Telegram account on Tuesday.
This was after a meeting with the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, which is dedicated to humanitarian issues related to the armed conflict in Israel and Gaza, according to the ICRC.
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We've never been closer, we're confident. But there is still work to be done. Nothing is done until everything is done," White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. To a reporter who asked, "Is a hostage deal close?" U.S. President Joe Biden replied in Washington, "I think so."
It is also reported that Egypt has entered the mediation with all its weight over the belligerents.
The families of the hostages in Israel are more pessimistic. After many difficulties, they were able to meet with the war cabinet in Tel Aviv on Monday evening. "We were looking for answers. We didn't get them," a representative of the families said after a three-hour meeting.
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