Fabric Covers Body of Gaza Bomb Victim | Photo: MAHMUD HAMS / AFP
The Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip has claimed 20,000 lives since October 7, the Islamist movement Hamas announced on Wednesday (20), coinciding with a visit by its leader to Egypt to discuss a new ceasefire in the devastated Palestinian territories.
Israeli bombings and ground fighting have left no peace in the Gaza Strip, despite calls to avoid the deaths of civilians.
In response to Islamist militiamen's attack on its territory on October 7, in which they killed around 1,140 people, most of them civilians, Israel vowed to “destroy” Hamas, which has ruled the narrow Palestinian territory since 2007, according to an AFP report. . Survey based on the latest official Israeli data.
In the attack, Hamas and other armed groups kidnapped around 250 people, 129 of whom are still in Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
Hamas announced that Israeli military operations have so far killed 20,000 people in the Gaza Strip, including 8,000 children and 6,000 women.
“At least 30 people” died in southern Gaza on Wednesday evening in an Israeli bombing that hit two houses east of Khan Yunis near the European Hospital, the territory's health ministry reported.
The bombings only stopped during the weeklong ceasefire that allowed for the release of 105 hostages held by Hamas in exchange for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
The ceasefire ended on December 1st and since then international pressure has increased to reach a new ceasefire that would allow the release of more hostages and the entry of more aid into the area, which has been under complete siege by Israel since October 9th.
“We will continue the war”
However, Israel rules out any possibility of a ceasefire before “eliminating Hamas,” which the United States, the European Union and Israel classify as a terrorist organization.
“We will continue the war until the end. It will continue until the elimination of Hamas, until victory. Those who believe that we will stop are out of touch with reality,” emphasized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this Wednesday.
A Hamas leader told AFP in Gaza that “a complete ceasefire and the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation army from Gaza were necessary conditions for any exchange” between Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
Qatarbased Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh arrived in Egypt this Wednesday to take part in ceasefire negotiations with the country's authorities, who helped broker the first ceasefire.
The meeting would discuss “many proposals, including a weeklong ceasefire in exchange for the release of 40 Israeli prisoners by Hamas,” a source close to the Islamist group told AFP.
According to a source at Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian Islamist movement allied with Hamas, that organization's chief, Ziad al Nakhala, will also travel to Cairo next week.
According to the news portal Axios, David Barnea, head of the Israeli secret service Mossad, met in Europe with Qatari Prime Minister Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and CIA Director Bill Burns to discuss a possible agreement on the release of hostages.
A source close to these negotiations told AFP that talks would continue after a “constructive meeting” in Warsaw.
The spokesman for the National Security Council of the United States, John Kirby, said this Wednesday that the negotiations in this regard are “very serious”.
Humanitarian crisis
Negotiations are also continuing at the United Nations. Since Monday, the Security Council has failed to adopt a resolution to speed up the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The vote has been postponed twice and council members are looking for a suitable formula to avoid a veto by the United States, Israel's main ally.
The United Nations' highest authority postponed the vote until Thursday “to allow more time for diplomacy,” the organization's acting president, José Javier De La Gasca, said on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Israel continues to bomb Gaza. “We were woken up by a huge explosion,” Samar Abu Luli, a resident of the Shabura refugee camp in the southern Palestinian territory, told AFPTV.
“We managed to escape by a miracle […]. But where? There is no town, school, mosque, clinic or hospital. “Everything was destroyed,” he continued.
The Israeli army said on Wednesday it had discovered a network of tunnels used by Hamas leaders. Destroying these tunnels is one of their goals.
The Palestinian territory is facing a serious humanitarian crisis. Most of its hospitals are out of service and 85% of the population, or 1.9 million people, fled the destruction in the north to seek refuge in the south.
According to a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, half of the population suffers from extreme or severe hunger. (AFP)
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