GAZA - The fight between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has entered its 12th month with little sign of respite for the Palestinian territory or hope for Israeli hostages still held captive. The chances of a truce that would also swap Palestinian prisoners jailed by Israel for hostages held by Hamas appeared slim, with both sides sticking doggedly to their positions.
Hamas is demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists troops must remain along the Gaza-Egypt border. The United States, Qatar and Egypt have all been mediating in an effort to bring about a ceasefire in the offensive that Gaza authorities say has killed at least 40,939 people. According to the United Nations human rights office, most of the dead are women and children.
Israel is at loggerheads with the United States over talks to forge a truce in the Gaza operation.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said “90 per cent is agreed” and urged Israel and Hamas to finalise a deal. Netanyahu denied this, telling Fox News: “It’s not close.”
Relatives of Israeli captives are speaking publicly ahead of a planned demonstration tonight in Tel Aviv as critics of the failure of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure a truce deal continue to ramp up pressure, Al Jazeera reports.
“A week ago, we stood here and warned — for the sake of his own political survival — Netanyahu is willing to let the hostages be murdered in captivity,” said Zahiro Shahar Mor, a nephew of a captive held in Gaza. Mor accused the prime minister of deliberately preventing an agreement with Hamas on the captives’ release. “The blood of the murdered hostages is on Netanyahu’s hands. The lives could have been saved through any of the many deals he sabotaged. The lives of some of the hostages can still be saved. But Netanyahu is Mr Death,” Al Jazeera quoted Mor as saying.
Three Lebanese paramedics have been killed and two others wounded, one critically, in an Israeli attack while they were extinguishing fires in the southern town of Faroun, Reuters quoted Lebanon’s health ministry as saying. “Israeli forces targeted a team from the Lebanese Civil Defence as they responded to fires sparked by recent Israeli airstrikes,” a ministry statement said, specifying that the strike hit a fire truck.
It condemned the attack as a “blatant strike” on an official Lebanese state apparatus, marking the second such attack on an emergency team in less than 12 hours.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
The intensity of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel has ratcheted up steadily, displacing tens of thousands of people on either side of the Lebanese-Israeli frontier.
Hezbollah has issued a statement saying it launched a “squadron of missiles” in response to the attack on Lebanon, which killed three medics, Al Jazeera reports.
Hezbollah said the headquarters of Israel’s 91st Division, which is responsible for its northern border, “hitting offices and soldiers with precision”.
The health ministry condemned the attack as a “blatant strike” on an official Lebanese state apparatus, Al Jazeera said.
The intensity of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel has ratcheted up steadily, displacing tens of thousands of people on either side of the Lebanese-Israeli frontier.