(Washington) US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Israel, an ally of the United States, agreed to finalize the terms of a two-month-old cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and urged Hamas to accept it, when the Israeli army extends its offensive in Palestinian territory.
“Israel has accepted the conditions necessary to finalize the 60-day ceasefire, during which we will work with all the parties to end the war,” wrote the American president on his social social platform.
“The Qataris and the Egyptians, who worked hard to contribute to peace, will present this ultimate proposal,” added the Republican. “I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas will accept this agreement, because the situation will not improve-it will only get worse”.
Image taken from Donald Trump’s social social account
Residents of Gaza say that the noises of fire and explosions have almost continued in recent days through Palestinian territory, ravaged by almost 21 months of war between Israel and Hamas.
“We are willing to accept any proposal if it leads to the end of the war,” a spokesman for the Islamist movement, Taher al-Nenou, told AFP before Donald Trump’s statements.
The American president is due to receive Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu in Washington next week.
Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer was in the American capital on Tuesday to meet senior officials in the White House.
“Danger is everywhere”
“I have the impression that the army intensifies massacres on the ground as soon as it comes to negotiations or a potential ceasefire,” says Raafat Halles, a 39-year-old Gazaoui.
He regularly runs shelter when Israeli tanks, sometimes accompanied by bulldozers, patrol his district of Choujaïya, in the east of the city of Gaza. “We flee as soon as the tanks are approaching and then we come back, because the danger is everywhere,” he says.
Photo Jack Guez, agency France-Presse
Residents of Gaza say that the noises of fire and explosions have almost continued in recent days through Palestinian territory.
The Israeli army said Tuesday that its aviation had struck in 24 hours “more than 140 terrorist targets to support land forces” and announced that it has dismantled in the south of Gaza about 3 kilometers of tunnels, used according to Hamas fighters.
She said she had “extended her operations in new sectors of the Gaza Strip” in recent days. What the International Committee of the Red Cross said “deeply alarmed”.
The Civil Defense of Gaza reported at least 26 people dead Tuesday in Israeli army fire, including 16 people killed while they were waiting to receive humanitarian aid.
Questioned by AFP, the army replied that it had pulled the war to move away from the suspects and not be aware of people injured as a result of these shots.
Meningitis case
Given the restrictions imposed on the media in the Gaza Strip and the difficulties of access to the field, AFP is not able to independently verify the balance sheets and affirmations of the Civil Defense.
Nearly 170 international NGOs have called to end the new aid distribution system, managed since the end of May by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a company with opaque funding supported by Israel and the United States.
Local health authorities also alert on an increase in meningitis in children, favored by catastrophic living conditions and the lack of means of hospitals.
Photo Eyad Baba, Agency France-Presse
The 169 NGO press release said that more than 500 Palestinians were killed, and nearly 4,000 injured, trying to access humanitarian aid in less than four weeks.
The war was launched by an unprecedented attack in Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
This attack resulted in Israeli on the death of 1219 people on the Israeli, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count made from official data. Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 49 are still hostages in Gaza, 27 of which were declared dead by the Israeli army.
More than 56,640 Palestinians, mainly civilians, were killed in the Israeli reprisal campaign on the Gaza Strip, according to data from the Ministry of Health of the Government of Hamas, deemed reliable by the UN.
