2023-11-21 07:53:41
Update
November 21, 2023
13:52
Hamas and the United States assure that the conclusion of a truce agreement in the Gaza Strip, in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages, is “close”.
Talks are accelerating this Tuesday for the release of hostages in the hands of Hamas, in exchange for a truce in the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian Islamist movement accuses Israel of a deadly strike on a besieged hospital.
According to two sources close to the matter, the talks would focus on an agreement aimed at the release of “50 to 100” hostages in exchange for the release of 300 Palestinian prisoners in Israel, including children and women.
“The movement (Hamas, Editor’s note) delivered its response to the brothers of Qatar and the mediators. We are getting closer to concluding a truce agreement”declared Hamas leader Ismaïl Haniyeh this Tuesday in a brief message in Arabic sent by his office to AFP.
Qatar, Egypt and the United States are working towards agreement to try to free hostages kidnapped in Israel by Hamas in exchange for a truce in the Gaza Strip.
According to sources within Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the second largest Palestinian armed Islamist group, the two movements have accepted an agreement, the details of which must be announced by Qatar and the mediators. The Israeli government did not immediately react to these statements.
What are the details of the agreement?
Two sources close to the matter told AFP on Tuesday that the talks focused on an agreement aimed at release of “50 to 100” hostages in exchange for the release of 300 Palestinian prisoners in Israelincluding children and women.
The transfer would be done in stages at the rate of “ten” Israeli hostages against “thirty” Palestinian prisoners per day and would understand entry of food, medical aid and fuel and above all a “renewable five-day humanitarian truce”.
More Israel insists on “family reunification” — which means that if a civilian was released, his partner would also be, even if he was a soldier — which Hamas, opposed to the release of soldiers, refuses for the moment, according to these two sources.
Relatives of the hostages met, Monday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his “war cabinet”, under pressure to bring back the few 240 hostages in Israel. “We will not stop the fighting until we bring our hostages home, destroy Hamas and ensure that there are no more threats from Gaza,” Benjamin Netanyahu said on the network social X, after this meeting, without lifting the veil on the talks.
Indonesian hospital hit by strikes in Gaza
According to Hamas Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidreh, Indonesian hospital is still besieged this Tuesday by Israeli tanks and “50 dead are lying in front of the establishment”.
He indicated Monday evening that some 200 patients had been evacuated from this hospital, but that there remained “still 400 patients” in the establishment where at least “12 patients and their relatives” had been killed earlier, according to him, in an Israeli strike.
The Islamist movement constantly repeats that Israel is waging “a war against the hospitals” in Gaza, almost all of which in the north of the territory are no longer functioning. Israel, for its part, accuses Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes and of using the civilians there as “human shields”, which the Palestinian movement denies.
A health “tragedy” in sight
While Israel’s military operations in Gaza show no respite, particularly in the north of the Gaza Strip, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Tuesday that a real health “tragedy” loomed in this territory, due to lack of fuel and water.
Lebanese-Israeli border
Since the start of the war, the clashes between Israel and the powerful Lebanese Hezbollah and its allies are daily in the border area. Two journalists and two other civilians were killed this Tuesday in southern Lebanon in Israeli strikes, said the official Lebanese press agency and the Al Mayadeen channel for which they worked.
Cross-border violence has at least 92 dead in Lebanon since October 7, mostly Hezbollah fighters, but also at least 14 civilians, according to an AFP count. Nine people were killed on the Israeli side, including six soldiers, according to the authorities.
The latest human tolls
In total, 13,300 Palestinians, including more than 5,600 children and 3,550 women, were killed in the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas attack in Israel, according to the latest report from the Islamist movement’s government.
According to the UN, nearly 1.7 million of the 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced by the war in the Gaza Strip, subjected since October 9 to a “complete siege” by Israel, which blocks deliveries of food, water, electricity and medicine.
On the Israeli side, the attack on October 7 left 1,200 dead, mostly civilians., according to authorities. Three Israeli soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip, the army announced Monday, bringing to 67 the number of soldiers killed in this territory since the start of the war.
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