[ad_1]
A senior Hamas official said on Friday the group would respond “very soon” to a proposal that includes an extended pause in the Gaza fighting and a phased exchange of Hamas hostages for Palestinians captured in Israel.
Hamas and other militants in Gaza are holding dozens of people hostage, abducting about 250 during their deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7 that killed 1,200, mostly civilians, and the enclave. Gave rise to Israel’s fierce attack. More than 100 hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners during a week-long ceasefire in November.
Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 27,000 people and injured 66,000, the territory’s health ministry said Thursday. The Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths, but says most of those killed were women and children.
Despite continued efforts by top officials around the world to ease regional tensions, Israel’s war in Gaza risks spilling over into neighboring countries.
currently:
– Analysis shows destruction and a potential buffer zone along the Gaza Strip’s border with Israel.
– AP-NORC poll shows half of American adults say Israel has gone too far in its war in Gaza.
– A U.S. company says a standoff with Turkey over gunmen taking hostages at its factory in Gaza has been resolved.
– Biden imposes sanctions on Israeli settlers accused of attacking Palestinians and peace activists in the West Bank.
— Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Here’s the latest:
Hamas wants release of key Palestinian prisoners
BEIRUT – A senior Hamas official says his group is still studying a proposed multi-tiered deal for a long-term pause in the Gaza fighting, including an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, but At the same time he was seen rejecting key components of the proposal. ,
Osama Hamdan said that the release of all hostages, believed to number more than 100, would be possible only if Israel ends its war against Hamas in Gaza and releases thousands of Palestinian security prisoners held by Israel.
He named two prisoners, including Palestinian rebel leader Marwan Barghouti, who is serving multiple life sentences in Israel for his alleged role in several deadly attacks carried out a generation ago. Barghouti remains popular among Palestinians and is seen as a unifying figure.
Hamdan said he believed his group had enough hostages to gain the freedom of all prisoners serving sentences in Israeli prisons.
The priority is to achieve freedom for people serving life sentences, no matter which group they belong to. In addition to Barghouti, he also named Ahmed Sadat, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, as well as prisoners from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group.
Hamdan told Lebanon’s LBC TV that Hamas insists on a permanent ceasefire, rejecting the proposal’s phased approach with multiple interruptions in the fighting.
“There is no way this would be acceptable to the Resistance,” he said.
“We have tried temporary ceasefires and it turns out that the Israelis do not respect these ceasefires, but always violate them,” Hamdan said, in an apparent reference to a week-long ceasefire in November.
Hamdan said Hamas wants an end to the siege of the Gaza Strip as well as a promise to rebuild the territory.
UN warns of ‘pressure cooker of despair’
GENEVA – The United Nations is warning that Rafah is becoming a “pressure cooker of despair” as thousands of people flee Khan Yunis and other parts of southern Gaza into the city due to the Israel-Hamas war.
Jens Larke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, also said the situation in Rafah was “not looking good”, amid concerns that the city could become a new epicenter of Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. .
“Rafa is a pressure cooker of despair and we fear what will happen next,” he told a regular UN briefing in Geneva on Friday. “It’s like every week we think, you know, it can’t get any worse than this. Well, go find out. it gets worse.
Larke said, “It is very important for us and for OCHA to put on record today our deep concern about what is happening in Khan Yunis and Rafah in the southern part of the Strip, because it is really not good. It seems.”
Speaking from Jerusalem, Dr. Rick Pepperkorn, the World Health Organization representative in the occupied Palestinian territories, said the U.N. health agency estimates that at least 8,000 Gazans must be sent abroad for medical care.
Of those, some three-quarters, or 6,000, require care for war injuries – such as treatment for burns or reconstructive surgery – while the rest require medical attention for conditions such as cancer or other diseases. , Peppercorn said.
A total of 243 people have been referred abroad since the war began on October 7, he said, adding: “This is very low… this is very low.”
Hamas is expected to respond soon to its proposal which includes the release of hostages and a ceasefire
BEIRUT – A senior Hamas official says the group will respond “very soon” to a proposal that includes an extended pause in the Gaza fighting and a phased exchange of Hamas hostages for Palestinians captured in Israel.
The official told The Associated Press on Friday that a permanent ceasefire is the most important component for Hamas, and everything else can be negotiated.
The multi-layered resolution was drafted several days ago by senior officials from the United States, Israel, Qatar and Egypt and is awaiting a response from Hamas. In Cairo, a senior Egyptian official with direct knowledge of the contacts said Hamas had not submitted a formal response but had sent positive signals.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as indirect talks are still ongoing.
The proposal being presented to Hamas includes a significant increase in aid trucks entering Gaza and allowing displaced residents to gradually return to their homes in the north, but does not explicitly call for a permanent ceasefire. . Israel has said that it will not agree to end the war as a condition for the release of the hostages.
Hamas and other militants in Gaza are still holding dozens hostage after abducting about 250 people during their deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7. More than 100 people were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners during a week-long ceasefire in November.
,
Bassem Maroué in Beirut and Sammy Magdy in Cairo contributed.
An Israeli airstrike hits a Damascus suburb
Beirut – State media reported that an Israeli air strike on a southern suburb of Damascus early Friday caused material damage, while an opposition war monitor said two Iran-backed fighters were killed.
There was no immediate comment from Israel.
State news agency SANA quoted a military statement as saying that Israeli warplanes fired the missiles while flying over Syria’s Israeli-held Golan Heights. It gave no further details other than to say that Syrian air defenses shot down several missiles.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the airstrike killed two Iranian-backed militants in a farm south of Damascus.
Israel has launched hundreds of strikes against targets inside government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria in recent years. Israel rarely acknowledges its actions in Syria, but has said it targets targets of Iran-allied militant groups such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces. Have sent.
The Associated Press
Source: ca.finance.yahoo.com
[ad_2]
