The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu authorized this Friday a new round of negotiations with a view to a truce in the Gaza Stripbesieged and bombed relentlessly for almost six months by Israel, and where the population is on the verge of famine.
The Israeli army launched a new barrage of bombings on Gaza on Friday, killing at least 71 people in the last few hours, according to the Health Ministry of Hamas, which has ruled this territory since 2007.
Following a meeting with Israel’s intelligence services, Netanyahu authorized a new round of negotiations in the coming days in Doha and Cairo (…), to move forward,” his office said in a statement.
In recent months there have been several rounds of negotiations, led by Egypt, Qatar and the United States, to achieve a truce in the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, but without results. Both sides accuse each other of blocking them.
Since the conflict broke out, only a one-week truce has been achieved at the end of November. This made it possible to free a hundred hostages, kidnapped during the October 7 attack by Hamas in Israel, against Palestinian prisoners.
Israel vowed to “annihilate” Hamas after that attack that left 1,160 dead, mostly civiliansaccording to an AFP account based on Israeli sources.
In addition, 250 people were kidnapped and 130 of them remain hostages in Gaza, 34 of whom have died, according to Israel.
The Israeli army launched an operation in Gaza that has left at least 32,623 dead, mostly women and minors, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, and most of its 2.4 million inhabitants on the brink of famine. according to the UN.
Matthew Hollingworth, head of the World Food Program (WFP) for the Palestinian Territories, assured that “There is no other place in the world where there are such significant numbers of people facing imminent famine.”
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest court of the UN, on Thursday ordered Israel to guarantee “without delay” the delivery of “urgent humanitarian aid” to Gaza.
Ground aid barely enters the small territory in dribs and drabs. Several countries are dropping food by parachute, especially in the north of the Strip, where the situation is desperate.
Israel must “allow UNRWA to reach the northern Gaza Strip with food convoys (…) on a daily basis and open other land crossings,” urged the director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini.
A second ship loaded with humanitarian aid could leave Cyprus on Saturday bound for Gaza. A first arrived in mid-March.
The Israeli army, which accuses Hamas fighters of hiding in hospitals in Gaza, said it was continuing its “operations” in the Al Shifa hospital complex in Gaza City (north), and claimed to have “eliminated some 200 terrorists.” ” there since March 18.
He said he was making sure to “avoid any harm to civilians, patients and medical equipment.”
Source: Ambito
