It was anticipated that Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas, would visit Cairo on Thursday to discuss a planned ceasefire in Gaza, while Israel continued its offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory.
After mediators convened in Paris, with international efforts toward a new pause in the horrific war gathering momentum, a source told AFP that Hamas was evaluating a proposal for a six-week truce in its battle with Israel.
Fighting and aerial bombardment continued unabated in Gaza, with the key southern city of Khan Yunis serving as the current center of action as Israel claims to be the hiding place of top Hamas fighters.
Witnesses reported seeing multiple Israeli airstrikes on the city overnight, and relief and medical personnel have been reporting fierce fighting for days, especially near two hospitals.
The Gaza health ministry, administered by Hamas, reports that the most recent night of attacks claimed the lives of 119 individuals.
Leo Cans, chief of mission for the global NGO Doctors Without Borders for the Palestinian Territories, declared, “There is a massacre taking place right now.”
The Israeli army published this handout photo on February 1, 2024, depicting Israeli troops in action in the Gaza Strip during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian organization Hamas. IMAGE: AFP
The European Union and the United States have labeled Hamas as a “terrorist” organization. Hamas denies that it operates from tunnels under Gaza hospitals and utilizes medical facilities as command centers.
Michael Ryan, the director of emergencies at the World Health Organization, stated on Wednesday that the population is “starving to death” as a result of restrictions on the distribution of humanitarian goods.
“The civilians of Gaza are not parties to this conflict and they should be protected, as should be their health facilities,” he stated.
The United Nations noted in its most recent report that there has been intense bombardment throughout the Gaza Strip, especially in Khan Yunis, and that 184,000 Palestinians from the city had registered to get humanitarian aid after abandoning their homes.
The head of Hamas was scheduled to visit Cairo on Thursday to talk with CIA Director William Burns about a truce proposal that was hammered out in Paris the previous weekend, as efforts at mediation led by Qatar and Egypt grew more intense.
The three-stage plan, according to a Hamas source who spoke with AFP, would begin with a six-week ceasefire that would allow for increased humanitarian supplies into the Gaza Strip.
The source, who asked to remain anonymous owing to the sensitive nature of the negotiations, stated that only “women, children, and sick men over 60” detained by Gaza militants would be freed during that phase in exchange for Palestinian inmates in Israel.
The source added that among the topics addressed by the agreement was the reconstruction of the land. There would also be “negotiations around the withdrawal of Israeli forces,” with potential subsequent phases involving more hostage-prisoner exchanges, the source claimed.
At least 26,900 people have been killed in Gaza by Israel’s ruthless military campaign, the majority of them were women and children, since Hamas launched its invasion into occupied Palestinian territory on October 7 in protest of Israel’s violent settler colonial policies.
Approximately 1,140 Israeli settlers died as a result of the attack, according to estimates that Israeli authorities have twice revised downward.
About 250 captives were also taken by the resistance fighters. According to Israel, 132 of them are still in Gaza, with at least 29 of them presumably dead.
The UN Conference on Trade and Development stated that the reconstruction of Gaza, which “currently is uninhabitable” due to half of its structures being damaged or destroyed, would take tens of billions of dollars and seven decades.
In reaction to the October attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly pledged to destroy Hamas and ruled out withdrawing forces from Gaza.
As part of any agreement, Netanyahu has also opposed the release of “thousands” of Palestinian detainees; yet, his office described the current conversations as “constructive” on Sunday.
As many Israeli captives remain in Gaza, their families are unsure of when their loved ones will return, leading to growing criticism of Netanyahu’s administration and even calls for early elections.
A significant dispute regarding UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, has made it more difficult for residents in Gaza to get humanitarian help after Israel accused some of its employees of being involved in the Hamas attack.
Following the revelations last week, money for the organization was frozen by a number of donor nations, headed by the United States, a major ally of Israel.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reported to a UN committee that he had “met with donors to outline the steps we are taking and to listen to their concerns.”
The UNRWA supports “an independent investigation” into the Israeli charges that caused the financing crisis, spokesperson Tamara Alrifai told AFP.
⚡️WATCH: Al-Qassam (Hamas) published a video showing the targeting and destroying of military vehicles infiltrating the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood, west of Gaza City. pic.twitter.com/v5EpzAeaK3
— Arya – آریا 🇮🇷 (@AryJeay) January 31, 2024
At a gathering of UN ambassadors in Jerusalem, Netanyahu declared that Hamas had “totally infiltrated” UNRWA. Other agencies ought to take its place, he said.
The war’s effects are being felt far and wide; since October, violence in the Middle East involving Hamas supporters backed by Iran has increased, attracting the attention of US forces among others.
Three American soldiers were murdered by a drone attack at a base in Jordan over the weekend, and the White House blamed the attack on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose coalition of armed groups supporting Iran.
According to the US Navy, on Wednesday, three Iranian drones and an anti-ship missile fired by the Houthi rebels in Yemen were taken down by an American naval vessel.
It also reported that it had struck ten Houthi attack drones and a ground control center in Yemen; previously, it had declared that it had struck a surface-to-air missile that it claimed presented a “imminent threat” to American planes.
The Houthis have targeted ships in the Red Sea on multiple occasions that they believe are connected to Israel.
The International Monetary Fund reported that as a result, container shipping over the crucial trade route has decreased by around one-third this year.
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