Gaza, negotiations once again in the balance after the raid on the Al-Shifa hospital –

The negotiations underway in Doha to reach a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas risked falling apart after yesterday’s Israeli attack on the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza. According to what we read in the Arab press reported by the Israeli press, it was the Egyptian officials present at the negotiations who convinced the Hamas representatives not to withdraw from the talks. An Egyptian source familiar with the matter told the London-based newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that officials intervened yesterday to ensure that Hamas’ participation in the negotiations could continue. However, the same source considers it unlikely that the discussions will lead to a permanent ceasefire: Israel has categorically ruled it out and maintains its goal of destroying Hamas even once an agreement is concluded.

The current round of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas began last night in Qatar, following the arrival in Doha of an Israeli delegation led by Mossad chief David Barnea. An Israeli official estimated that negotiations in Doha could last at least two weeks.

«Hamas continues to systematically operate from hospitals and civilian infrastructures and exploits civilians and patients as human shields», was the statement made by the spokesperson of the Israeli Armed Forces (IDF) in the press conference in which he explained the Israeli attack on the hospital. Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. «During the operation, we arrested over two hundred suspected terrorists who are currently under investigation, eliminated more than twenty terrorists in the hospital area, including the terrorist Faiq Mabhouh, who was the head of the Hamas Internal Security Special Operations Directorate “, he precised. «During searches of the hospital, our forces found weapons and money inside the hospital intended to be distributed to Hamas terrorists. This money indicates a mechanism, a mechanism that terrorists have exploited, including high-level operatives, to operate a Hamas mechanism from inside the hospital, to distribute money to terrorist operatives and from there to send operations. Even when Hamas terrorists hide inside the hospital, the terrorists take care of themselves first and foremost, to the detriment of the patients and civilians present.”