2024-03-16 11:01:39
This content was published on March 16, 2024 – 1:00 p.m.
(Keystone-ATS) Hopes for a truce in the Gaza Strip appear to be revived following Hamas eased its demands, restarting negotiations once more. At the same time, the first aid boat finished unloading its cargo of food in the territory on Saturday.
Hamas health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra announced early Saturday the deaths of 36 people, including women and children, in a strike on a house where displaced people were crowded in Nusseirat ( center). In total, 123 people have died since Friday evening throughout the territory, according to the same source.
The Hamas government reported 60 nighttime strikes on several areas, as well as “violent fighting” in Khan Younes, in the south, and Zaytoun, in Gaza City.
The Palestinian Islamist movement, which has so far demanded a definitive ceasefire from Israel before any agreement on the release of hostages held in Gaza, said it was ready for a six-week truce, during which 42 hostages – women , children, the elderly and the sick – might be released in exchange for 20 to 50 Palestinian prisoners for each hostage released.
“Hard work”
American Secretary of State Antony Blinken, for his part, declared that the mediating countries – which did not manage to secure a truce agreement as they had hoped before the start of Ramadan on Monday – were working “hard to fill the remaining gap” with a view to a hostage agreement and a truce.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that an Israeli delegation would go to Qatar as part of negotiations around this exchange, without specifying when. And the White House said it was “cautiously optimistic” for negotiations on a truce.
In addition to raids and fighting, the UN fears widespread famine in the Palestinian territory, particularly in the north, ravaged by war and difficult to access.
Cargo unloaded
Departing from Cyprus on Tuesday, a boat from the Spanish NGO Open Arms carrying 200 tonnes of food from the organization World Kitchen Central (WCK) arrived on the coast of Gaza on Friday where it finished unloading its cargo on Saturday.
“All the cargo has been unloaded and is being prepared for distribution to Gaza,” WCK said on Saturday, which said it was preparing a second aid ship to Cyprus, with “hundreds of tons of food.” .
Aid transported by land enters the south of the Gaza Strip following having been inspected by Israel, but remains very insufficient compared to the needs of the 2.4 million inhabitants.
International efforts are increasing to try to deliver more humanitarian aid, directly to northern Gaza, by airdrops or via a new maritime corridor from Cyprus.
“No more normal-sized babies”
The UN, the European Union, the United States and other countries have reiterated in recent days that the delivery of aid by air or sea cannot replace land routes.
The Open Arms ship had previously been subjected to “a complete security check”, according to the Israeli army which is imposing a complete siege on the territory.
The situation is dramatic to the point that “doctors no longer see babies of normal size” in Gaza, protested Friday Dominic Allen, head of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for the Palestinian territories.
They “see more stillborn babies,” lamented Mr. Allen, who was able to travel to Gaza, describing pregnant women “exhausted by fear, by having been displaced several times, by hunger” and the dehydration.
Operation on Rafah?
While negotiations are active behind the scenes for a truce, Prime Minister Netanyahu approved the army’s “action plans” for an offensive in Rafah, where, according to the UN, around 1 .5 million Palestinians. This operation might take place in the absence of a truce agreement or following a possible six-week pause in the fighting.
“The Israeli army is ready for the operational side and for the evacuation of the population”, according to its services which give no further details on this long-announced operation, once morest which the United States and the UN continue to oppose to warn.
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