An Israeli political official accused the Palestinian Islamist movement of refusing to “make compromises”.
Hamas and Israel have mutually accused themselves of halt their indirect negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza, where 38 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes according to the local civil defense. A Palestinian source close to talks started on Sunday in Doha through foreign mediators first blamed “the insistence of Israel” for a plan to withdraw from its Gaza troops, which Hamas “rejects firmly”.
An Israeli politician responded in the evening by accusing the Palestinian Islamist movement of refusing to “make compromises” and to lead “a psychological war aimed at sabotaging negotiations”. The war in Gaza was triggered by a bloody attack of Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023. In retaliation, the Israeli army launched a destructive offensive, seizing vast sectors of the Palestinian coastal strip.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reaffirmed the objectives of his country in recent days: to release the hostages that are still retained, disarm Hamas and hunt it from Gaza. Negotiations in Doha encounter “obstacles and complex difficulties,” the Palestinian source told AFP, claiming that Israel sticks to a card that plans “the maintenance of (its) forces on more than 40% of the area of Gaza”.
According to her, the Israeli army would plan to redeploy all around the territory of more than two million inhabitants, besieged by Israel for 21 months and living in terrible conditions according to the UN.
“Progress” despite everything
Seven UN agencies warned in a joint declaration that the fuel shortage in Gaza had reached a “critical level” and constituted an “unbearable new burden” for “a population on the brink of famine”. Israel aims to “pile up hundreds of thousands of displaced people” in southern Gaza, “in preparation for a forced displacement of the population to Egypt or other countries,” said the same Palestinian source.
A second Palestinian source still reported “progress” on issues related to the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza and the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Of the 251 people kidnapped in the October 7 attack, 49 are still retained in Gaza, 27 of whom were declared dead by the Israeli army.
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“Israel has demonstrated his desire to be flexible in negotiations,” said the Israeli official when local media reports that a new army withdrawal plan could be presented in Doha. In Tel Aviv, thousands of people gathered, as every Saturday evening, to claim the return of hostages. “Would you also be slow to free Auschwitz?”, Asks a banner for the government.
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“The opportunity window to bring back all the hostages, alive and dead, is open for the moment, but it will not be the case for a long time,” said a former released hostage, Eli Sharabi, calling for help US President Donald Trump.
Plules of smoke
In the Gaza Strip, a bombing on the Al-Shati refugee camp, near Gaza-Ville, killed 11 people, “including a majority of children”, according to Mahmoud Bassal, spokesperson for the Civil Defense, who reported 38 people in total on Saturday. The Israeli army said it had hit at the end of the day “more than 35 terrorist targets”, including a Hamas tunnel, around the city of Beit Hanoun, in the north of Gaza, where imposing plumes of smoke rose to the sky.
She had announced earlier that she had already targeted “around 250 terrorist targets” in the space of 48 hours through Palestinian territory, including arms deposits or snipers. Given the restrictions imposed on the media in Gaza and the difficulties of access to the field, AFP is not able to independently check the balance sheets and affirmations of the various parties.
The attack on October 7 left 1219 dead on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count made from official data. At least 57,882 Palestinians, mainly civilians, were killed in the Israeli reprisal campaign in Gaza, according to data from the Ministry of Health of the Government of Hamas, deemed reliable by the UN.
