Hamas said “ready” to a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on Friday, November 15, while Lebanon studies an American truce proposal, Lebanese officials said. Meanwhile, Israeli strikes continued on Beirut, the Lebanese capital. Here is what to remember from this new day of war.
Lebanese capital targeted by Israeli strikes
A new series of Israeli raids targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon’s Ani news agency reported, with one strike causing the collapse of a multi-story building near a busy intersection in the Lebanese capital.
Photos taken by an AFP photographer on the outskirts of the southern suburbs showed a projectile hitting the building on its lower floors, triggering a fireball and the structure collapsing in a cloud of smoke.
The Ani agency reported a “violent raid carried out by Israeli enemy aircraft” in the Ghobeiry district, very close to the Tayouné roundabout, a very lively area of Beirut, and opposite Horch Beirut, the largest park in the capital. After the strike, civil defense was dispatched to the site to put out a fire in the middle of the smoking rubble, before a bulldozer intervened to clear the rubble.
Hamas says it is “ready” for a ceasefire
Hamas is “ready” for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and calls on Donald Trump to “to put pressure” on Israel to end its military operations, said a senior official in the Palestinian Islamist movement.
“Hamas is ready to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in the event that a ceasefire proposal is presented and provided that[Israël] respect him”said a member of his political office, Bassem Naïm, calling “the American administration and Trump to put pressure on the Israeli government to stop the aggression” in Gaza.
“Hamas informed the mediators that it was in favor of any proposal submitted to it, which would result in a definitive ceasefire and military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, allowing the return of the displaced, a serious agreement for an exchange of prisoners, the entry of humanitarian aid and reconstruction”added Bassem Naïm.
Lebanon says it is studying a truce proposal
Lebanon is studying a US truce proposal, Lebanese officials said, while Qatar suspended its mediation between Israel and Hamas. A senior Lebanese official indicated that the American ambassador to Beirut, Lisa Johnson, had presented to the Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, and the head of Parliament, Nabih Berri, a 13-point plan which includes a 60-day truce and the deployment of the army in southern Lebanon, on the border with Israel. A second Lebanese government source confirmed that a proposal was under consideration.
Israeli strike on Damascus, Syria
An Israeli strike targeted the upscale neighborhood of Mazzé in Damascus, the official Syrian press agency Sana said, the second raid of this type in two days. Israel has intensified its strikes in recent weeks on Syrian territory.
For its part, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) assured that the strike had targeted a residential complex reserved for the military. On Thursday, 13 people, including seven civilians, were killed in similar strikes that destroyed three buildings in the same neighborhood, according to the OSDH.
NGOs accuse the Israeli army of encouraging the looting of humanitarian aid
The Israeli army favors the looting of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, in particular by attacking the Palestinian police forces who are trying to combat it, 29 NGOs have accused in a joint report.
“Looting is a recurring problem, a result of Israel’s targeting of the remaining police forces in Gaza, the shortage of essential goods, the lack of roads and the closure of most crossing points, and the desperation of the population which results in these disastrous conditions”point out these NGOs, including Médecins du monde, Oxfam and the Norwegian Refugee Council.
The Israeli army “failed” in addition to “prevent the looting of aid trucks and armed gangs from extorting protection money from humanitarian organizations”continue the NGOs.
In their report, the NGOs also claim that “in certain cases”, while Palestinian police officers “attempted to take action against the looters, they were attacked by Israeli troops.” “Many incidents take place near or under the eyes of Israeli forces, without them intervening, even when truckers ask for help.”
New video of Israeli hostage Trupanov in Gaza
Islamic Jihad released a new video clip of Israeli hostage Sasha Trupanov, two days after the release of a first video. In this extract, the young man, identified on Wednesday in the video by his relatives, addresses the leader of the ultra-Orthodox party, Shass Arié Dery, member of the government coalition, so that he contributes to his release and that of others hostages still in captivity in Gaza.
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