2023-11-22 05:22:00
The Government of Israel approved this Wednesday morning an agreement by which Palestinian Hamas militants will free 50 women and children held hostage in Gaza in exchange for four-day pause in fightingAccording to the Israeli Prime Minister’s office, Benjamin Netanyahu. As part of the agreed points, the authorities would advance in the release of some 300 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
Officials from Qatar, which has mediated the negotiations, as well as from the United States, Israel and Hamas, had been stating for days that the pact was imminent.
The agreement will mean the first truce of a war in which Israeli bombings have devastated large areas of Gaza, governed by Hamas, causing the death of 13,300 civilians in the small, densely populated enclave and have left homeless nearly two thirds of its 2.3 million inhabitantsaccording to Gaza authorities.
“The Government approved the broad outlines of the first stage of an agreement according to which at least 50 people kidnapped (women and children) They will be released for four days during which there will be a respite in the fighting,” the government said in a statement to which the news agency had access. AFP.
Before his cabinet meeting, which began on Tuesday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said that accepting the deal was controversial, “but it is the right decision.”
His cabinet was under pressure from the families of some 240 people kidnapped by the Islamist group in its Oct. 7 attack, which also left 1,200 people dead, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities.
Since then, Israel launched an offensive once morest Gaza with the purpose of “annihilating” Hamas, which has left more than 14,000 dead in this territory. victims of incessant shelling and Israeli ground operations.
Before the agreement was announced, Netanyahu said that the US president’s intervention Joe Biden had helped improve the provisional agreement to include more hostages and fewer concessions.
However, Netanyahu said Israel’s goal had not changed. “We are at war and we will continue the war until we achieve all our objectives. “Destroy Hamas, return all our hostages and ensure that no entity in Gaza can threaten Israel.”
A US official briefed on the talks previously said the deal would include the exchange of 150 Palestinian prisoners.
The truce would also allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.
Save the Children said that in Gaza “children are not safe anywhere”
The truce will not end the war in the Middle East
Hamas, whose leader Ismail Haniyeh had announced progress in negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, celebrated in a statement the “humanitarian truce” agreement and assured that its provisions were “formulated in accordance with the vision of the resistance.”
Both the United States and Qatar had assured the day before that the agreement was very close following weeks of negotiations.
The truce agreement will not mean the end of the war in the Gaza Stripas warned on Tuesday by the Israeli Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, who acknowledged at the same time that he wanted a “full force” resumption of operations to “defeat” Hamas.
“The Israeli government, the Israeli army and the security forces will continue the war to return all abducted people, eliminate Hamas and ensure that there is no threat to the State of Israel from Gaza,” the Israeli Government agreed in the statement on the implications of the agreement.
At the opposite extreme, the Palestinian movement Hamas was also defiant in its statement: “We confirm that our fingers will remain on the triggers and that our triumphant battalions will remain on the lookout.”
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