The glimmer of peace that Gaza has regained in the last six days has not only failed to bring peace to the West Bank, but has also coincided with an even greater rise in violence in this occupied Palestinian territory, where some of its residents denounce war, that brings peace does not exist. bears this name.
While Hamas this Wednesday was open to the possibility of extending the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip for another four days, which expires this Thursday at 7:00 a.m. (one hour less in Spanish peninsular time), about thirty Palestinians were arrested in the West Bank Wednesday, early in the morning in Ramallah, Jericho, Nablus and Jenin, Abdallah Zgari, president of the NGO Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, told this newspaper. That number exceeds the number of prisoners from the West Bank and East Jerusalem who were released on Tuesday thanks to the hostage exchange in Gaza that accompanied the ceasefire. In Jenin, the Israeli army carried out a major military invasion that lasted more than 16 hours.
The city has been declared a “military exclusion zone” and the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian Authority (PNA) has reported the deaths of two children in this military operation: Adam Saber al Ghouk, eight years old – according to other sources he could be nine – and Basil Suleiman Abu al-Wafa, 15. A video broadcast by Palestinian media and social media users shows footage from cameras in the Jenin camp in which the first of them is shot dead by a sniper.
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While the latest and umpteenth military invasion of Jenin has just ended, a Hamas source from Gaza quoted by Agence France Presse has assured that the Palestinian fundamentalist movement “agrees” to extend the ceasefire for another four days. This suggests not only that the armed group is successful in locating more of the 161 hostages the Israeli government says are still in Gaza, but also that Israel and Hamas may begin targeting adult men and women exchanging soldiers or even proposing to release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the return of Israeli bodies held by Palestinian militias. So far, there is only one adult man among the 66 Israeli hostages released: a man with dual Israeli and Russian citizenship. The rest are women and minors, in addition to the 20 Asian workers released in the Palestinian enclave outside the framework of the agreement between Israel and Hamas. Israel, for its part, has released 180 Palestinians, including women and children, since last Friday.
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During the same period, a very similar number of Palestinians were arrested by Israel: 168, according to Abdallah Zgari. The president of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club denounces that the Israeli authorities continue to arrest minors, such as the 12-year-old boy who he said was arrested on Tuesday evening in Ramallah, the capital of the West Bank.
Egypt’s Al Arabi Al Yadid newspaper reported on Wednesday that Hamas and Israel – with mediation from Qatar, Egypt and the United States – had reached an agreement to extend the ceasefire by at least two days, although neither side has officially confirmed this Statements from sources close to Hamas quoted by France Presse. According to this Egyptian newspaper, citing official sources, the temporary cessation of hostilities would be extended with conditions very similar to those in force since the ceasefire began on Friday, i.e. the delivery every day of ten hostages in the hands of the Palestinians militias to Israel, which in turn would continue to release Palestinian prisoners and allow 200 trucks carrying humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip every day. This amount is “insufficient,” the United Nations reminded again on Tuesday evening. Before the war, around 500 heavy vehicles carrying humanitarian aid and goods entered the Gaza Strip every day.
Israeli officials quoted by Haaretz newspaper have confirmed that this proposal to extend the temporary ceasefire for two days is being considered by the Israeli government, which has not yet signed it. In line with the official discourse, the officials quoted by the newspaper claimed that Israel is in no way considering extending the lull in the war beyond Sunday, a short period of time that the mediators between that country and Hamas, particularly Qatar and Egypt, are extending who have reiterated that their aim is to make this ceasefire a definitive ceasefire.
The head of US intelligence, William Burns – Director of the CIA – met again this Wednesday in Doha with David Barnea, head of the Israeli Mossad, to analyze the new phase of the ceasefire, according to a source quoted by Portal. The United States is trying to understand what conditions Israel sets for this new extension and whether there is a possibility that it will be extended by little more than the two days added to the four days of cessation of hostilities originally agreed. At a news conference in Brussels, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said his country would focus “over the next two days” on “doing everything possible to extend the pause so that we continue to take more hostages and provide more humanitarian assistance. “ [a Gaza]“. Blinken plans to visit Israel this Thursday for the fourth time since the war began.
In particular, under these new conditions, the possibility of starting the exchange of adult male hostages and soldiers of both sexes is being discussed. This question seems essential to a somewhat more lasting peace, considering that a significant number of civilian women and children held captive in the hands of the Palestinian militias (65) have already been released and Israel is calling for a cessation of fighting any day now conditional, who is handed over to him over 10 new hostages. Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy named this Wednesday 161 people kidnapped in Gaza, of which 141 are Israelis and the rest are foreigners.
In the press conference in which he revealed this information, the spokesman assured that his country would “continue to increase military pressure so that Hamas releases more hostages in Gaza.” In doing so, he reinforced the official Israeli argument that ignores the danger that the bombings in Gaza also pose to the abducted people, which, according to Gaza health authorities, have already killed at least 15,000 people. The Ezedín al-Qasam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, assured this Wednesday that three Israeli hostages from the Argentine-Israeli Bibas family died in the bombings: the ten-month-old baby Kfir Bibas, his older brother Ariel, four, and her mother Shiri. An official Israeli statement responded by saying “full responsibility for the safety of the hostages” rests with Hamas. Military spokesman Daniel Hagari later expressed doubts about the announcement of Hamas’s armed wing.
The Israeli narrative claims that continuing the war would lead Hamas to release more kidnapped people. The official Israeli argument also describes this ceasefire as “an operational pause” that will allow better preparation for the next phases of a conflict that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government can hardly do without.
On the one hand, the prime minister is under pressure to fulfill his promise to “end Hamas,” a goal difficult to achieve given the dual military and political nature of the religious nationalist movement and the implementation of its social and charitable infrastructure. and the impossibility of destroying an ideology with cannon fire. Beyond that promise, Netanyahu faces the belligerence of his government’s far-right wing. One of their representatives, the Minister of National Security, the far-right Itamar Ben Gvir, warned on Tuesday his partner in X, formerly Twitter, that ending the war would amount to a break in the coalition that allows the prime minister to govern.
Closed military zone
The guns have fallen silent for a moment in Gaza, but not in the West Bank, where its residents have been living in a state of constant escalation since October 7 – the day of the Hamas attack on Israel in which 1,200 people died. Especially in some cities that Israel sees as fiefdoms of the Palestinian resistance, such as Jenin in the northern West Bank with around 50,000 residents. According to various Palestinian sources, between 11,000 and 14,000 of them live in a refugee camp whose area covers less than half a square kilometer.
On Tuesday afternoon, scores of Israeli military vehicles again entered the city and countryside, while snipers were stationed on rooftops and drones flew over buildings, health sources who requested anonymity told this newspaper. Luz Saavedra, coordinator of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Jenin, the only international organization permanently working in the refugee camp and the city, later confirmed to EL PAÍS in an audio message that the Israeli military had blocked access to the largest public hospital in the city, Jalil Suleimán, “with military vehicles and snipers” who denied the wounded access to the emergency rooms of the center that supports Doctors Without Borders.
“On this occasion, we even saw attack troops near the emergency entrance on the hospital premises,” a fact of “considerable gravity” that had not been observed “in previous raids,” Saavedra denounced. Doctors Without Borders says it is currently unable to provide any numbers on deaths or injuries.
“Since October 7th,” explained Dr. Wisam Bakr, director of the Jalil Suleiman Hospital, told this newspaper in Jenin, hours before the incursion, “Israeli soldiers no longer follow rules.” During their raids, they “not only prevent the wounded and patients from receiving medical care,” but They also “stop the ambulances, search them and take the wounded into custody,” Bakr said. The snipers are shooting directly at the hospital, says this doctor. The windows of the central staircase are riddled with huge bullet holes that, given their diameter, appear to be of large caliber. Attacks on hospitals, ambulances and the detention of the wounded, even if they are combatants – as long as they no longer pose a threat – can constitute a war crime.
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