“Anyone who supports a ceasefire fundamentally supports Hamas’ continued reign of terror in Gaza,” Israeli UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan told the UN’s most powerful body in New York on Wednesday. Israel cannot protect its citizens with a ceasefire.
You cannot call for a ceasefire and at the same time claim that you are looking for a solution to the conflict. The militant Hamas is not a partner for reliable peace. “Don’t you see the contradiction here – that the demand for a ceasefire and peace is a paradox?” Erdan continued. There can only be an end to the violence if Hamas hands over all the hostages and all the terrorists involved in the attack on Israel on October 7th.
Guterres, for his part, stated: “The people of Gaza are in the midst of an epic humanitarian catastrophe before the eyes of the world. operations in Gaza than the total number of children in Gaza years since my tenure as Secretary-General have been killed by a party to the conflict.” Four out of every five people in Gaza were expelled from their homes. 111 UN staff were also killed in Israeli attacks – the highest UN toll ever “45 percent of all homes in the Gaza Strip are damaged or destroyed,” Guterres complained.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told the Security Council meeting that the Palestinian people face an “existential threat” in the conflict. “Israel does not have the right to self-defense against a people who occupy it,” said al-Maliki.
The US called on Israel to protect civilians in the Gaza war. “We know that Hamas uses civilians as human shields to deliberately and cruelly endanger Palestinian civilians,” said U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield. “However, this does not diminish Israel’s responsibility to protect civilians in accordance with international humanitarian law.”
In the war between Israel and radical Islamist Hamas, which has lasted more than seven weeks, a ceasefire came into force last Friday and is expected to end on Thursday morning. Since the ceasefire came into force, a total of 60 Israeli women and children, as well as another 21 foreign hostages, mostly guest workers from Thailand, have been released by Hamas under the mediation of Qatar, Egypt and the US. In return, Israel has so far released 180 Palestinian prisoners from its prisons.
Shortly before the end of the ceasefire in the Gaza war, intense negotiations over an extension took place on Wednesday. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken promised on Wednesday, after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, “to do everything in our power to extend the pause”. At the same time, we will discuss with Israel how the country can achieve the goal of never repeating terrorist attacks like the one on October 7th.
Blinken also expressed his conviction that the continuation of the ceasefire was also in the interests of the Israelis. “They are also focusing intensely on bringing their people home,” the American said, referring to the Israeli hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip. According to his own statements, the Minister of Foreign Affairs will be in Israel again this Thursday and will hold talks with the local government. It is his third visit since the start of the conflict.
Islamist Hamas said it was working hard on a possible extension, a spokesperson told Al Jazeera news channel. On Wednesday night, 10 Israeli hostages would be released by Hamas, in exchange for the release of 30 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.
According to information from Israeli negotiating circles, the radical Islamist Hamas still has enough hostages under its control to extend the ceasefire for two or three days. This emerges from the list of women and children, says the person involved in the negotiations, who did not want to be identified. Egyptian security circles also previously reported that a two-day extension was conceivable.
However, it was still unclear by evening whether negotiations on extending the ceasefire would be successful. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that fighting would resume when “this phase of the return of our hostages is complete.” He also reiterated that he wanted to maintain the war objective of destroying Hamas.
Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) met with his Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen of the national conservative Likud party on Wednesday ahead of the OSCE foreign ministers’ meeting in Skopje. What was discussed were “options for the ‘day after’ that would allow Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side in peace and security,” as Schallenberg said via “X” (formerly Twitter).
Meanwhile, one of Cohen’s predecessors called for a “transition process” in an interview with the daily newspaper “Die Presse” (online edition). Israel must continue to reserve the right to self-defense after a possible withdrawal from Gaza,” said Tzipi Livni, who was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2009. International organizations must address the humanitarian situation in Gaza, together with the States of Gulf. “The October 7 terrorist attack was also carried out to prevent rapprochement between Israel and the Saudis,” analyzed Livni.To shape the future of Gaza, a quartet should be formed: the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the USA.
In its brutal October 7 attack, Hamas abducted around 240 people, including many children. Hundreds of fighters from the militia, classified as a terrorist organization by the US and the EU, entered Israel and, according to Israeli data, killed around 1,200 people. In response, Israel massively bombed targets in the Gaza Strip from the air and the ground for weeks. According to Hamas figures, which cannot be independently verified, close to 15,000 people were killed in Palestinian territory.