War in Gaza: progress in truce talks but an increasingly difficult situation
Talks for a truce between Israel and Hamas accompanied by the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners showed signs of progress on Tuesday while fears of famine in the Gaza Strip and a armed operation in the Rafah sector, where 1.5 million people are crowded together.
A family breaks their fast amid rubble in Gaza this Ramadan.
AP - Fatima Shbair
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Antony Blinken in the Middle East to try to advance talks
The head of Israeli intelligence, the Prime Minister of Qatar and Egyptian officials were to meet Monday in Doha to discuss a possible truce agreement in
Gaza
, a source close to the negotiations told AFP.
According to the American site Axios, “ positive
” discussions did take place and Israeli negotiators will remain in Doha to continue “
detailed
” talks
with the Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
The State Department, for its part, announced on Tuesday that the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, would travel to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and to Egypt on Thursday in the hope of resolving the situation.
Israel
announced on Friday the sending of a delegation to Doha, without specifying the date, after what appears to be a change in the position of Hamas saying it is ready for a six-week truce after having long requested a ceasefire. final.
“
We accepted that there would be a partial withdrawal from the Gaza Strip before any exchange, and after the first stage, a total withdrawal
,” said one of the Hamas leaders, Osama Hamdan, on Monday.
“
During the first stage, there will be a total cessation of military operations
,” he added, referring to discussions which could continue for “
a few days
”.
The hostage list, a sticking point
Of the approximately 250 people kidnapped and taken to Gaza during the October 7 attack, 130 are believed to still be detained.
But among them, 32 are believed to have died, according to Israel, which is demanding from Hamas a precise list of hostages still alive.
However, the Palestinian Islamist movement says it does not know who is “
alive or dead
” among the hostages and for its part asks to be able to decide on the identity of the main Palestinian prisoners to be released.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under pressure from the hostage families, who are urging him to accept an agreement, and from far-right members of his government, hostile to the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners.
The Israeli military operation launched in retaliation for this attack has so far left more than 31,700 dead, mostly women and minors, according to the Islamist movement's Ministry of Health.
Early Tuesday, the Hamas health ministry reported 78 deaths in the evening and night in Gaza, including 15 people at a residence in Rafah.
New offensive on al-Chifa hospital
The north of Gaza witnessed on Monday violent fighting accompanied by bombings, around and in the grounds of the al-Chifa hospital, the most important in the territory located in the heart of Gaza City which the army had stormed on November 15 before retiring.
The Israeli army claims that its offensive against this hospital had a specific objective: “
to track down senior Hamas officers, holed up in this hospital
”.
She claims to have “
eliminated
”
20 Palestinian fighters
.
And once again, Gazans were caught in the hell of fighting/
At 2 a.m., there was an incursion into al-Chifa hospital.
Israeli forces entered it via several axes.
We heard major explosions and bombings.
People who were in the hospital were arrested, and the hospital was emptied.
01:21
Mohamed testifies to the offensive against the hospital
Sami Boukhelifa
Moreover, Washington confirmed the death last week of the deputy head of the armed wing of Hamas, Marwan Issa, the highest ranking officer in the organization killed since the start of the war.
Imminent state of famine, according to the IPC
In the meantime, the UN fears a famine in northern Gaza by the end of May in the absence of “
urgent
” measures.
The declaration of a state of famine in a specific territory is governed by strict criteria.
The UN relies on its specialized agencies based in Rome, the World Food Program (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which rely on a technical body, the Integrated Classification Framework of food security (IPC).
The IPC analyzes and classifies the severity of food insecurity on a scale based on international scientific standards.
According to its latest report published Monday, one in two inhabitants of Gaza is currently in a “
catastrophic
” food situation, or 1.1 million people.
Israel has imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip since the start of the war and controls the entry of humanitarian aid.
This aid arrives mainly from Egypt via Rafah, but remains very insufficient given the immense needs of the population.
It reaches with great difficulty in the north, where more than 300,000 people currently live, according to the UN.
Neither airdrops nor a first maritime delivery in recent days can compensate for access by land routes, explains Louis-Nicolas Jandeaux, humanitarian manager for the NGO Oxfam, who investigated the restrictions imposed by Israel on the entry of aid in the territory.
“
Overall, the system for inspecting humanitarian aid arriving in Gaza is totally dysfunctional and very undersized.
Which means that trucks at the entrance to the crossing points are blocked for 20 days on average before being able to enter Gaza, which is absolutely titanic
,
”
he emphasizes at Nicolas Falez’s microphone, estimating that he there is “
intentional withholding of aid
” and “
the use of hunger as a weapon of war
”.
Avoiding the offensive in Rafah
In a first telephone interview in a little over a month with US President Joe Biden,
Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed Monday that he was determined to “
achieve all the objectives of the war
”
in Gaza including “
the elimination of Hamas
” .
Despite international pressure, Israel is preparing for a ground operation in Rafah, a city where, according to the UN, there are nearly 1.5 million Palestinians, most of them displaced.
A major ground offensive there would be “
a mistake
,” declared American national security adviser Jake Sullivan, assuring that Israel would not launch an operation before
discussions
on the subject.
President Biden has requested that an Israeli delegation be sent to Washington to discuss "
ways to target Hamas without carrying out a large ground offensive in Rafah
," he wrote on X (formerly Twitter), saying wishing for a break of “
several weeks in the fighting
” as part of an agreement to free the hostages and increase aid to Gaza.
Also read: In Gaza, the dismay of a psychologist faced with a population exhausted by Israeli bombings
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