Gaza: Hamas discusses “proposals” after pressures from Donald Trump for a cease-fire
Opinion (with AFP)
Jerusalem-Hamas announced on Wednesday to study “proposals” for a ceasefire in Gaza on Wednesday after American president Donald Trump said that Israel was favorable to a two-month truce. The head of Israeli diplomacy, Gideon Saar, for his part called not to “miss” an opportunity to release the last hostages selected in the Palestinian territory ravaged by 21 months of war. The Palestinian Islamist movement said he discussed “proposals” received from mediators who pilot indirect negotiations with Israel to achieve a truce agreement. Earlier, Mr. Saar said that a “large majority of the government and the population [était] favorable to the hostage liberation plan ”, without giving more details on this plan. “If the opportunity arises, it should not be missed,” he wrote on X. Donald Trump assured Tuesday that Israel had agreed to finalize the terms of a two-month ceasefire in Gaza and urged Hamas to accept it. However, no tangible track has yet emerged from negotiations, and the horizon of an end of the fighting arouses debates in Israel, from the far -right ministers opposing it as long as Hamas is still active. “We only have one word to say to them this morning: shame!” Tacked the family forum, the main association of relatives of the hostages selected in Gaza, and the spearhead of the mobilization to demand from the government an agreement for their release. Nadav Miran, brother of the hostage Omri Miran, member of the Forum of Hope, who brings together relatives of hostages opposed to negotiations with Hamas, told AFP to be against a partial agreement which “would leave Hamas in place”. Such an agreement “would not ensure the return of all hostages (…), they must be brought back all at once”. Catastrophic humanitarian situation The war in Gaza was launched by the unprecedented attack on Israel launched on October 7, 2023 by Hamas. Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 49 are still retained in Gaza, including 27 declared dead by the Israeli army. In Gaza, 33 people were killed on Wednesday in strikes and fire from the Israeli army, Mahmoud Bassal, spokesperson for local civil defense, told AFP. Nine Palestinians were killed in two night air strikes, one in the city of Gaza (North) and the other in Al-Mawasi (south), according to this first aid organization. After daybreak, five people, including at least two children, were killed in an Israeli drone attack on a house near Deir al-Balah (center), according to the same source. During the day, Mr. Bassal also reported seven dead in an Israeli strike on an apartment in Gaza-Ville, including the director of a hospital. The Israeli army said this week that it has extended its operations to the Gaza Strip, the more than two million inhabitants of which endure a catastrophic humanitarian situation. Questioned by AFP, the army said it wanted to “dismantle the military capacities of Hamas in response to wild attacks” of the Palestinian movement. Blood children during the day, more than a hundred people gathered in the courtyard of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younès (South) before the burial of the five members of the Abu Taimeh family, killed a few hours earlier. Inside the establishment, which only works partially due to shortages, several children covered with blood are taken care of. Meanwhile, in the Al-Mawasi area, passers-by watch amazed what remains of a tent targeted by an Israeli strike. Some of the wounded lived in the hospital there, like many Gazans who, forced to leave their accommodation because of the war, populate makeshift camps. There is only one heap of pots and blankets, and still blood on the ground. The attack on October 7 led to the Israeli side of 1,219 people on the Israeli, mostly civilians,, according to an AFP count made from official data. More than 57,012 Palestinians, mainly civilians, were killed in the Israeli military reprisal campaign on the Gaza Strip, according to data from the Ministry of Health of the Hamas Government for Gaza, deemed reliable by the UN. © Agence France-Presse
