Even as the devastating attack on Gaza continued and missiles were being fired into Israel, the leader of Hamas told Reuters on Tuesday that the Palestinian terrorist group was close to reaching a peace with Israel.
Ismail Haniyeh’s aide submitted a message to Reuters stating that Hamas officials were “close to reaching a truce agreement” with Israel and that the group has delivered its response to Qatari mediators.
Further information was not included in the statement, however an official from Hamas told Al Jazeera TV that the main topics of discussion during negotiations were the duration of the truce, plans for delivering aid to Gaza, and the exchange of Israeli captives held by Hamas for Palestinian detainees in Israel.
According to the spokesman, Issat el Reshiq, both parties would release women and children, and specifics would be disclosed by Qatar, which is mediating the talks.
Israel has stayed silent on the state of the negotiations, which are being led by Qatar. An unnamed senior government official was quoted by Israel’s Channel 12 television as saying, “They are close,” but providing no other information.
Around 240 people were held captive by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which claimed 1,200 lives.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), situated in Geneva, released a statement stating that its president, Mirjana Spoljaric, met with Haniyeh on Monday in Qatar to “advance humanitarian issues” pertaining to the conflict. She also had a private meeting with Qatari officials.
While stating that it was not involved in talks to free the hostages, the ICRC stated that it was prepared “to facilitate any future release that the parties agree to” in its capacity as an impartial middleman.
For days, rumors of an impending hostage exchange have circulated. Last week, Reuters revealed that negotiations by Qatari mediators were aimed at an agreement wherein Israel would free certain inmates and a three-day ceasefire in exchange for Hamas releasing fifty captives.
Michael Herzog, the Israeli ambassador to the US, expressed optimism for a solution “in the coming days” on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, the prime minister of Qatar, countered that the remaining issues were “very minor.” On Monday, US President Joe Biden and other officials announced that an agreement was almost reached.
Israel invaded Gaza in response to the Hamas invasion on October 7, the bloodiest day in the country’s 75-year history, with the goal of eliminating the militant organization that had dominated there since 2007.
Since then, Israeli bombardment has transformed much of Gaza, notably its northern half, into desolation, according to the Hamas-run administration in Gaza, which claims at least 13,300 Palestinians have been proven murdered, including at least 5,600 children.
Approximately two-thirds of Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants are now without a place to live, and thousands of them still walk south every day carrying their children in their arms and their possessions. Israel has instructed them to leave the enclave’s central and southern regions, but these areas have also frequently seen attacks.
DEADLINES FOR THE NUSEIRAT STRIKE APPEAR 20
According to Gaza health officials, an Israeli bombing of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza at midnight on Tuesday resulted in the deaths of at least 20 Palestinians. Israel refrained from commenting right away.
Situated just south of the wetlands that split the strip, the already densely populated Nuseirat neighborhood was born out of a camp for Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Israeli-Arab war. It has served as the first point of arrival for countless numbers of people fleeing the fighting to the north.
Despite an Israeli directive to evacuate, it is thought that tens of thousands of civilians are still in the north. While many of the hospitals there continue to house patients and displaced Gazans, all of them have ceased to operate regularly. Both Hamas and the hospitals refute Israel’s claim that the organization utilizes hospitals as cover for its fighters.
Gaza’s health ministry reported on Monday that gunfire into an Indonesian-built hospital surrounded by Israeli tanks resulted in at least 12 Palestinian deaths and several injuries. Israel claims that when fighters fired from within, it retaliated.
Health officials have denied that there were any fighters present, despite reporting that 700 patients and staff were under Israeli fire.
Issam Nabhan, the chief of the nursing department, said to Al-Jazeera Live on Tuesday that there were sixty dead bodies that needed to be buried in the grounds’ courtyards because patients were dying. He ordered the evacuation of the workers and patients.
“The patients cannot receive oxygen.” Everyone using artificial respiration has passed away. We address the free globe. The Indonesian hospital is no longer a hospital; it’s rather a cemetery.”
Reuters bureaus provided the reporting; Idrees Ali, Raju Gopalakrishnan, and Peter Graff wrote the pieces; Cynthia Osterman, Simon Cameron-Moore, and Alex Richardson edited them.
Source: Reuters news