The weapons in the Gaza war have been silent for almost a week. The population in the Gaza Strip is finally receiving help – but there is little hope for peace.
With the ceasefire in the Gaza war, Israel and the Islamist Hamas have each achieved important goals for themselves: the release of dozens of Israeli hostages and the release of more than 200 Palestinian prisoners. The needy population in the Gaza Strip, in turn, is receiving significantly more help than before. But it remains unclear how things will continue. Questions and answers about the ceasefire:
What are the chances of the ceasefire being extended beyond Friday?
The mediators Qatar and Egypt are trying to extend the ceasefire again. In principle, Israel and Hamas agreed the week before last on a time frame for the ceasefire of a maximum of ten days. This time window ends Monday morning. Israeli government security adviser Mark Regev told CNN that if Hamas releases 10 Israeli hostages, the ceasefire will be extended by one day at a time. Israel insists they are living hostages. The question is whether Hamas will meet this demand.
According to Israeli media reports, Hamas presented a list of eight living hostages on Thursday morning shortly before the deadline. It was also said that negotiations were underway to return three bodies. The US government announced on Monday that it assumed that not all of the hostages were in the hands of Hamas. CNN reported an estimated 40 hostages, according to unnamed diplomatic sources.
How many Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners have been exchanged so far?
By midday on Thursday, 97 hostages kidnapped by Hamas in the Gaza Strip had been exchanged for 210 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons. The released hostages include 73 Israelis – including 14 with German citizenship – as well as 23 people from Thailand and one person from the Philippines. The Palestinian prisoners are women and minors, the youngest being 14 years old. They were accused of, among other things, throwing firebombs, arson and knife attacks.
How many hostages are still in the Gaza Strip?
According to the Times of Israel, Israel suspects that around 145 hostages – including 15 women and children – are still in the Gaza Strip. According to previous figures, there would have to be around six hostages with German passports. According to Foreign Office spokesman Majid Al-Ansari on Tuesday, mediator Qatar cannot confirm the exact number of remaining hostages. According to Israeli information, around 240 hostages were originally kidnapped.
What is known about the conditions of hostage detention?
Relatives of hostages have reported in Israeli and international media that their family members were not ill-treated while in captivity. But there were days without food. Sometimes those abducted had to wait an hour and a half before they were allowed to use the toilet. Some days there was only flatbread or just a small portion of rice. They slept on benches or chairs pushed together. A relative of a released 12-year-old reported that children were threatened with weapons so that they would be quiet. After his release, the boy reported that he was forced to watch videos of the terrorist attack on Israel on October 7th. He also had to spend the first 16 days of his captivity alone in a closed room.
What about male hostages and the soldiers?
So far there have been no announcements about a hostage agreement for the male hostages and the soldiers. It can be assumed that Hamas will make significantly higher demands, especially for soldiers, than for women and children. There is already speculation in the Israeli media that the army could ultimately try to free the soldiers by force. According to radio, around ten soldiers were abducted from their military bases on October 7th.
Israel has already had bitter experiences with the exchange of an abducted soldier in the past: in 2011, the Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, who was kidnapped in 2006 and was held captive by Hamas for several years, was released in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. The current head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Jihia al-Sinwar, was also released.
Can Palestinians now move freely in the Gaza Strip?
No. Israel has effectively divided the Gaza Strip in two through its ground offensive in the north. Shortly after the ceasefire began, soldiers were deployed to prevent displaced Palestinians from traveling from the south of the Gaza Strip to their former homes in the north to inspect them or check on relatives. According to Hamas sources, two people were killed by gunfire in the central area of the Gaza Strip and others were injured as they tried to cross to the north. In the southern part there was largely freedom of movement.
What does the ceasefire mean for the civilian population in the Gaza Strip?
The suffering people in Gaza are completely worn out after around seven weeks of war. Aid workers speak of a dramatic humanitarian crisis. According to UN figures, around 1.8 million people, or around three quarters of the population, are now internally displaced. There is a lack of pretty much everything: food, water and medicine are very scarce, as are the chances of medical treatment. As a result of the massive Israeli air strikes and the ground offensive in the northern part, according to the Hamas authorities, almost 15,000 people were killed and more than 36,000 people were injured. The numbers cannot currently be independently verified, but are generally viewed by the UN and diplomats as credible. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, since the ceasefire began, 1,132 trucks carrying aid supplies had arrived in the sealed-off coastal strip as of Wednesday.
How great is the destruction in the Gaza Strip?
Enormous, that much is certain, as countless photos from the war zone show. Thomas White, UNRWA director for Gaza, described the city of Gaza as a “ghost town”, with all streets deserted and the level of destruction enormous. According to US researchers, between 67,000 and 88,000 buildings have been damaged since the war began. This emerges from an analysis by the Decentralized Damage Mapping Group (DDMG), in which a group of US scientists examined the attacks in the coastal area using satellite data. In the northern Gaza Strip, 50 to 60 percent of the buildings were damaged.
Could the ceasefire lead to an end to the war?
It doesn’t look like that at the moment. Israel has made it very clear that it sees the ceasefire as just that – a pause. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly emphasizes that the war will continue until Israel has achieved all of its goals. This included the elimination of Hamas and the return of all hostages. In addition, Gaza should no longer pose a threat to Israel. Netanyahu last announced on Wednesday that fighting would resume when “this phase of the return of our hostages is complete.”
Hamas, in turn, ultimately wants to establish an Islamic state on the territory of the entire historic Palestine. She wants to destroy the state of Israel. A spokesman for the terrorist organization has also threatened to repeat the October 7 massacres. The USA, but also Germany, have so far supported Israel’s rejection of a long-term ceasefire.
What is the biggest international concern about a continuation of the war?
That the number of civilian victims will rise drastically again. According to the UN, many of the approximately 1.8 million internally displaced people are in overcrowded emergency shelters in the south of the coastal region. The World Health Organization has already warned of the massive spread of disease that could ultimately cause more deaths than the fighting. If the Israeli army continues its attacks on Hamas targets as announced and then increasingly targets the south, it is questionable how the population can be protected. In addition, it is unclear how it will even be possible to supply people in need with humanitarian goods.
What is Israel’s long-term plan for Gaza?
That is unclear. Prime Minister Netanyahu said that Israel would have to continue to play a role in securing the area even after a victory over Hamas. At the same time, the USA, probably Israel’s most important ally, is explicitly warning against a renewed occupation of the Gaza Strip. The US government wants the Palestinian Authority to be responsible again for the Gaza Strip in addition to the West Bank. The long-term hope is a two-state solution, i.e. a peaceful coexistence between Israel and a Palestinian state – which currently seems unrealistic.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
