Situation at a glance: Fighting in Gaza and Lebanon – Hope for hostage talks

After Israel’s retaliatory strike against Iran, negotiations on a ceasefire in the Gaza war are to resume today in Qatar. Representatives of Israel want to meet with those of the mediating states Qatar, Egypt and the USA. The evening before, hundreds of people demonstrated again in Israel for an agreement to release the hostages who are still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army continues to take action against the Islamist terrorist organization there.

At least 30 Palestinians are said to have been killed in an Israeli attack in northern Gaza, according to local reports. Five houses were attacked in a residential area of ​​the border town of Beit Lahia. An unknown number of people are believed to be under the rubble. Emergency services could not reach them because of the ongoing fighting. Residents of the surrounding houses would carry the wounded away in donkey carts or on foot. Israel’s military initially did not comment on this, and information from both sides cannot usually be independently verified.

Fighting in Gaza and Lebanon continues

The Israeli Air Force also said it once again attacked a Hamas command center in the northern city of Gaza. It was said that night that it was in a building that had previously been used as a school. Before the “precise attack”, numerous measures were taken to reduce the danger to civilians, it said. This information could not be independently verified either.

Israel’s armed forces have been carrying out offensive operations in the northern section of the Gaza Strip for three weeks. According to Palestinian sources, hundreds of civilians were also killed.

During the night, Israel’s air force also continued attacks against the Hamas-allied Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. Lebanon’s state news agency NNA reported that Israel had again targeted the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut. An Israeli army spokesman had previously asked the residents of two neighborhoods via Platform X to leave their homes. They are close to Hezbollah facilities and action will be taken against them soon. Like the Islamist Hamas, the Hezbollah militia is part of the “Axis of Resistance” against Israel led by Iran.

Hezbollah continues shelling Israel

Despite Israel’s harsh military strikes against Hezbollah, the Shiite militia continues to shell the Jewish state. The Israeli army said late in the evening that around 190 projectiles were fired at Israel over the course of Saturday. Shortly afterwards, the warning sirens wailed again in northern Israel. Two drones that entered Israel from Lebanon were intercepted over open terrain, the army said overnight.

Israel carried out the retaliatory strike on Iran that had been expected for weeks on Saturday night. It was in response to an Iranian attack on October 1st in which around 200 ballistic missiles were fired at Israel. According to the Iranian military, four soldiers were killed in the Israeli counterstrike. They fell while “defending Iranian airspace,” the state news agency Irna reported, citing a statement from the army.

Iran: Israel’s fighter jets did not enter airspace

US President Joe Biden then insisted on de-escalating the situation with constant attacks and counterattacks. “I hope this is the end,” he told reporters in Pennsylvania state. He spoke to representatives of the secret services and learned that Israel’s attacks appeared to be limited to military targets. Biden also confirmed media reports that he had been informed in advance about Israel’s attacks. The United States remains Israel’s most important ally despite significant disagreements between both governments.

According to the Iranian military, the Israeli fighter jets did not enter the airspace of the Islamic Republic during the attack. Rather, Israel’s air force fired air-launched long-range missiles from the Iraqi border area at targets in Iran. Radar stations were hit, according to a statement from the General Staff that was distributed by state media. The damage was “limited and minor”. This information could not initially be independently verified.

The Islamic Republic of Iran reserves the right to an appropriate response at an appropriate time, the Armed Forces General Staff said. In the statement, Iran’s military also emphasized the need for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon “to prevent the killing of vulnerable and oppressed people.”

Are the Gaza talks getting back on track?

Since the killing of Hamas leader Jihia al-Sinwar in the Gaza Strip in mid-October, negotiators in the region have had a little more hope of restarting ceasefire negotiations. The head of the Israeli foreign secret service Mossad, David Barnea, is traveling to the Qatari capital Doha today. Israel is demanding the release of the approximately 100 hostages still held in Gaza, many of whom are no longer alive.

According to Israeli media reports, an official from Barnea’s negotiating team is said to have told the relatives of the abductees that a hostage agreement would require an end to the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip – which is currently not foreseeable. In addition, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not yet given his own negotiating delegation a sufficient mandate to lead today’s talks in Doha to a substantial result.

At a rally in Tel Aviv, speakers sharply attacked Netanyahu and accused him of delaying the indirect negotiations. “Who do you want to blame now that Sinwar is dead? The hostages?” the Times of Israel quoted the criticism of the brother of a Hamas hostage.

Sinwar’s death “perhaps creates an opportunity to actually move forward and reach an agreement,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during his recent visit to the Middle East. There has been no progress in the talks for months. There was hope in Israel that this could change after Sinwar’s killing. However, Hamas is sticking to its previous positions, including calling for a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip and an end to the war.

The war was triggered by the massacre carried out by Hamas terrorists and other extremists from Gaza in Israel on October 7 last year, in which 1,200 people were killed and another 250 were kidnapped as hostages in the Gaza Strip. Since the start of the war, Israel has also been attacked by Iran’s other allies such as Hezbollah, militias in Iraq and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.