Efforts are intensifying for a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli fighting and raids continued on Thursday, worsening the already dire humanitarian situation.
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On Thursday, US President Joe Biden approved an unprecedented measure aimed at sanctioning Israeli settlers accused of violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, where violence on the brink of the Gaza war has increased to what he said are “unbearable levels.” has reached.
According to Washington, the sanctions target people accused of “acts of terrorism” or undermining “peace, stability and security” in the territory.
In Gaza, witnesses reported Israeli attacks near Nasser Hospital in Khan Younes (south), where Israel says leaders of the Palestinian Islamist movement are hiding.
In this partially destroyed city, more than 30,000 displaced people housed in schools around Nasser Hospital lack food, water, medicine and infant formula, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
Hamas leader Ismaïl Haniyeh, who lives in exile in Qatar, is expected in Egypt on Thursday or Friday to discuss a renewed cessation of hostilities, nearly four months after the start of the war sparked by the bloody attack on his movement against Israel was triggered on October 7th.
The talks are expected to focus on a proposal that emerged from a recent meeting in Paris between CIA chief William Burns and Egyptian, Israeli and Qatari officials.
“Proposal in three phases”
According to a Hamas source, it is a three-stage proposal, the first of which calls for a six-week ceasefire in which Israel must release between 200 and 300 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 35 to 40 hostages held in Gaza. 200 to 300 aid trucks can move in daily enter Palestinian territory.
About 250 people were kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip on the day of the Hamas attack, about a hundred of whom were released in late November as part of an initial ceasefire in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. According to Israeli authorities, 132 hostages remain held in the Gaza Strip. 27 of them were declared dead by the army.
To support efforts for a second ceasefire, American diplomatic chief Antony Blinken will return to the Middle East “in the coming days.”
Currently, Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union in particular, is calling for a full ceasefire before an agreement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks of a possible ceasefire, but reiterates that he will only end the offensive once Hamas is eliminated, the hostages are released and guarantees for Israel's future security are preserved.
“We are working to reach another agreement to release our hostages, but not at any price,” said Mr. Netanyahu, who has faced pressure for a release from both the hostage families and members of his government who are hostile to an agreement on theirs In my opinion, too generous for the Palestinians.
The war broke out on October 7 when Hamas commandos infiltrating from the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented attack on Israeli soil that left some 1,163 people dead, mostly civilians, according to a new AFP count based on official Israeli figures.
In response, Israel vowed to “destroy” Hamas, which has been in power in Gaza since 2007, and launched a military offensive that left 27,019 people dead, the vast majority of them civilians, according to the Palestinian movement's health ministry.
Unrwa proposed the Nobel Peace Prize
In the devastated Palestinian territory, which the United Nations says has become “uninhabitable,” the population is “starving” and, according to the World Health Organization, “pushed to the brink.”
However, the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which said on Thursday it feared it would have to suspend its activities “by the end of February”, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by a Norwegian elected official “for its long-standing work” on behalf of Palestine and to provide vital support to the region.”
Thirteen donor countries suspended their contributions to the organization after Israel accused 12 of its employees of involvement in the October 7 attack. Unrwa said it had laid off most of the affected employees.
At Nasser Hospital, which is lacking everything, overwhelmed doctors try to cope with the influx of wounded.
“There are no more than five or six doctors in the emergency room. Each of us has to handle ten cases at the same time. “The injured who arrive die before we can care for them,” a doctor, Mahmoud Raja Abou Chamala, told AFP.
The war has forced 1.7 million of Gaza's 2.4 million residents to leave their homes, according to the United Nations.
As fighting spread, more than 1.3 million displaced people are now crowded into Rafah, stuck at the closed border with Egypt, according to the United Nations.
Palestinians detained by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip and currently being treated at a hospital in Rafah after their release on Thursday told AFP that they had suffered violence and deprivation in detention.
Asked by AFP about these allegations, the Israeli army said it had “arrested individuals suspected of being involved in terrorist activities” and assured that they had been dealt with “in accordance with international law.”
Outside Gaza, the conflict still risks inflaming the region. The Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have been attacking international shipping in “solidarity” with the Palestinians since mid-November, claimed responsibility overnight for an attack on an American ship in the Gulf of Aden.
Shortly thereafter, Washington announced that it had destroyed 10 attack drones and a Houthi command post in Yemen.