American emissary Steve Witkoff discussed Thursday in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the war in Gaza, at the time of considering recognizing a Palestinian state in the chagrin of Israel.
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After 22 months of a devastating war triggered by an attack on Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023, the Gaza Strip is threatened with a “generalized famine” according to the UN and is completely dependent on the humanitarian aid distributed by trucks or dropped from the air.
The dead who fell under Israeli fires and bombings are counted by dozens every day in the Palestinian territory besieged by Israel, according to the local civil defense which reported 38 Palestinians killed on Thursday.
Several dozens of bodies were lying stacked in the morgue of the Al-Chifa hospital in the north of Gaza, waiting to be collected by their relatives, noted an AFP correspondent.
“The fastest way to put an end to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is that Hamas capitulates and releases the hostages !!!”, said US President Donald Trump on X.
Nothing filtered from the meeting between MM. Witkoff and Netanyahu but at the start of the week, Trump seemed to distance himself from his Israeli ally by evoking a “real famine” in Gaza.
Before the arrival Thursday of Mr. Trump’s emissary, dozens of mothers and relatives of hostages still in the hands of Hamas demonstrated before the office of the Prime Minister in Jerusalem, demanding a “global agreement” which would guarantee the release of the 49 hostages still detained in Gaza, of which 27 were declared dead by the army.
“Minority position”
The attack on Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023 led to the Israeli side the death of 1219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count made from official data.
In response, Israel has sworn to destroy Hamas and launched a devastating offensive in Gaza which left at least 60,249 dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Ministry of Health in Gaza deemed reliable by the UN. The air and terrestrial campaign has devastated the territory and caused humanitarian disaster.
German diplomacy Johann Wadephul met him in Jerusalem his Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar, before meeting Mr. Netanyahu.
Before taking off for Israel, Mr. Wadephul considered that Israel was “increasingly in the minority position”, while “growing number of countries, including European, are ready to recognize a Palestinian State without prior negotiation process”.
These visits are involved after the multiplication of alerts of international organizations on a famine in Gaza and the failure of indirect negotiations, under American, Qatari and Egyptian mediation, between Israel and Hamas for a cease-fire.
The Israeli government announced on Sunday a limited break in the offensive to allow the delivery of aid in the poor small territory where more than two million Palestinians are piled up.
But these aids are deemed insufficient by international organizations in the face of the immense needs of the population.
“Deformed pressure”
Portugal said Thursday considering recognizing the State of Palestine, after several countries including Canada, France and the United Kingdom announced their intention to do the same on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September.
Such a recognition remains largely symbolic due to the refusal of Israel of the creation of such a state to which the Palestinians aspire.
In this context, Israel denounced a “distorted international pressure campaign” coming “to reward Hamas and harm the efforts aimed at obtaining a cease-fire in Gaza”.
The United States, which denounced the announcements on the recognition of a Palestinian State, imposed sanctions against officials of the Palestinian Authority and the Liberation Organization of Palestine (OLP), accusing the two organizations of having taken measures to “internationalize their conflict with Israel” and to “continue to support terrorism”.
The Netanyahu government, which wants to hunt Hamas from Gaza and has announced its intention to control the territory, seems to be to decide on a post-war political solution.
In this context, the most radical fringe of its government coalition pleads for a return from the colonies to Gaza, evacuated in 2005 with the Israeli unilateral withdrawal from the territory after 38 years of occupation.
The Israeli army has also announced the withdrawal from the north of Gaza from its 98th division, made up of paratrooper units and elite commandos, which has “prepare for new missions”.