On the carpets of offices, political leaders try to find a path to a new ceasefire as bombs continue to fall in Gaza. This morning, so many people died in Maghazi camp – in the middle of the Gaza Strip – that 106 people were killed in one of the largest massacres of this war. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two groups with Israeli hostages, have rejected a new cease-fire proposal from Egypt that, in addition to exchanging hostages and prisoners, envisaged a technocratic government in the West Bank and Gaza that would rebuild Gaza and prepare for new elections across Palestine. They didn't even give the Israeli executive branch time to make an official statement, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued his belligerent rhetoric: “We will not stop. We will intensify our fight in the coming days. “The fighting is far from over,” he told a gathering of lawmakers from his Likud party.
The Egyptian proposal, one of the most sophisticated and oldest to date, called for a “national Palestinian dialogue” to end the division between political factions – Fatah rules the West Bank while Hamas rules the Gaza Strip – and form a unified technocratic government would oversee the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and prepare elections for the two areas. Previously, Hamas had to release another 40 Israeli hostages in return for Israel releasing 120 Palestinian prisoners during a temporary ceasefire that, like the one in the last week of November, was intended to increase the flow of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. At a later stage, a final ceasefire would be proposed with a more extensive exchange of hostages and prisoners. Only then would Israel withdraw from the cities of Gaza so that the displaced people could return there.
However, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which also hold some hostages, rejected the proposal without even giving time for an official Israeli statement. Neither faction is backing down from their call for a final ceasefire and the distribution of aid throughout the area. “Only after an end to the aggression and an increase in aid in northern and southern Gaza will we talk about prisoner exchanges,” a senior Hamas official told Portal.
The Israeli government, which has not made an official statement, welcomed the initiative with some optimism on Sunday. “There are things we cannot accept, but the proposal can be a starting point for talks,” Ma'ariv newspaper said, citing executive branch sources. Israel Hayom, considered one of the media outlets closest to Netanyahu, expressed “the satisfaction” that in addition to the Qatar-led negotiating room, another negotiating room was opened from Egypt, which had already led to the previous ceasefire. Today, Netanyahu has returned to the tough tone: “Nothing will stop us,” but in reality he is under intense pressure from the hostages' relatives, who are now demanding a new exchange, giving Hamas another trump card. the negotiation hypothesis.
That same afternoon, they plan to gather in front of the National Security Council with 129 hourglasses, as do the abductees who are still in captivity, at least until this Sunday, when the army confirmed the discovery of the bodies in a tunnel in the northern Gaza Strip . of five of these hostages. The rally's motto is a defiant message to Netanyahu and his ministers: “Look us in the eyes.” Hours earlier, they had interrupted the prime minister's speech in parliament during a special session dedicated to the kidnapped people. “There’s no time now!” they shouted. “What if it was your brother or your father?” Netanyahu promised them that the army “will look behind every stone to bring them back,” but the truth is that so far the soldiers have only managed to save one . For his part, opposition leader Yair Lapid demanded that the release of the hostages take priority over winning the war.
Unfulfilled goals
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Netanyahu's threats to further escalate the war have already been carried out. Israeli bombers attacked the Maghazi refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip this morning, just two days after the army urged residents of the area to move south. According to Palestinian health authorities, 106 people were killed in the plane fire, including many women and children. This is already one of the bloodiest episodes of the war. Maghazi is one of the smallest and most densely populated camps. According to the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), more than 33,000 people are crammed into just 0.6 square kilometers. There were also fighting in the neighboring towns of Al Bureij and Nuseirat. In Khan Younis in the south, another 23 people were killed in another airstrike.
After the bombing of the Maghazi camp, a man tries to retrieve the body of a relative from the rubble. STRINGER (Portal)
The killing of Yayha Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, and his military commander Mohamed Deif is another goal that Israel has not achieved in the two and a half months that the war has already been going on. The first of them issued his first public message since the war began on Sunday, calling it “a fierce, violent and unprecedented battle” against Israel. “The Al-Qasam Brigades [el brazo armado de la organización] They will destroy the occupying army,” Sinwar said, assuring that Israeli troops “suffer great losses in lives and equipment.” He put the number of Israeli soldiers attacked at 5,000, “a third of them died, another third were seriously injured and the last was permanently disabled,” said the senior Hamas official. Israel recognizes only 156 dead in its army since hostilities began following the Hamas attacks on October 7, in which 1,200 people died and 240 were kidnapped.
We will no longer remain silent in the face of the UN's hypocrisy!
I have instructed the State Department not to renew the visa of any employee of the organization in Israel and to reject the visa application of another employee.
The UN's behavior since October 7th has…
— אלי כהן | Eli Cohen (@elicoh1) December 25, 2023
At the diplomatic level, Israel also toughened its tone towards the United Nations, making good on a threat it had been making for weeks. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eli Cohen, assured on “We will not remain silent in the face of the UN’s hypocrisy,” he said in his personal account. “Their behavior is a disgrace for the organization and the international community.” The publication accuses its general secretary, António Guterres, of legitimizing “war crimes and crimes against humanity” by Hamas; the High Commissioner for Human Rights for “spreading unfounded blood libels” and UN Women for “ignoring rapes against Israeli women” during the October 7 attacks.
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