A senior Hamas official on Wednesday welcomed the ceasefire concluded in Lebanon and affirmed that the Palestinian Islamist movement was also “ready” for a truce with the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip.
“The announcement of the ceasefire in Lebanon is a victory and a major success for the resistance,” this member of the Hamas political bureau told AFP, after it came into force, before dawn, of the truce in Lebanon, where the Israeli army was fighting Hezbollah.
“We have informed the mediators in Egypt, Qatar and Turkey that Hamas is ready for a ceasefire agreement and a serious agreement to exchange prisoners,” he added, however accusing Israel of hinder any agreement.
The war in the Gaza Strip was triggered by the surprise attack launched on October 7, 2023 by Hamas in southern Israel.
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This attack led to the death of 1,207 people on the Israeli side, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official figures and including hostages who died or were killed in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
That day, 251 people were kidnapped on Israeli soil. A total of 97 hostages remain in Gaza, 34 of whom were declared dead by the army.
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A truce in November 2023, the only one since the start of the war, allowed the release of more than 100 hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Since then, seven other hostages have been released alive in Israeli army operations.
More than 44,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli military campaign of retaliation on the Gaza Strip, the majority of them civilians, according to data from the Hamas government’s Health Ministry for Gaza, deemed reliable by the UN.
Challenge (with AFP)
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