Resumption of indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel in Qatar

Israel confirmed on Saturday the resumption of indirect negotiations with Hamas in Qatar with a view to the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli strikes left more than 30 dead according to local emergency services. The armed wing of Hamas, as it had already done on several occasions, published a video of one of the people kidnapped during the unprecedented attack of the Palestinian movement in Israel on October 7, 2023: Liri Albag, an Israeli from 19 years old.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz informed his parents of “ongoing efforts to free the hostages, including the Israeli delegation that left yesterday (Friday) for talks in Qatar.”

If Israel emphasizes the release of the hostages, Hamas, which reported on Friday the resumption of discussions, emphasizes the objective of achieving a truce in Gaza. The movement had indicated that discussions would focus in particular on a “complete cessation of hostilities” and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Palestinian territory besieged and devastated by nearly 15 months of war.

Rallies in Israel

Israel did not give details on this new round of talks while rallies were organized on Saturday in several cities across the country to press the government to obtain the release of the hostages as quickly as possible. “We asked the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense that the team of negotiators not return (from Qatar) without an agreement,” said Liri Albag’s parents.

Despite intense diplomatic efforts led under the aegis of Qatar, Egypt and the United States, no truce has been concluded since that of a week at the end of November 2023, which saw the release of ‘a hundred hostages. Negotiations had already taken place in Doha in December, but Hamas and Israel then accused each other of stopping them. Among the main sticking points so far have been the permanent nature or not of a ceasefire and the governance of Gaza after the war, Israel categorically opposing Hamas being able to rule the territory again.

On the ground, Gazan emergency services reported on Saturday at least 31 dead and many injured in several Israeli strikes across the coastal strip. One of them, according to the same source, completely destroyed the house of the al-Ghoula family in Gaza City in the early morning, killing 11 people, including seven children. “A big explosion woke us up, everything shook. I was surprised to see that it was the house of our neighbors, the al-Ghoula family. There was no one wanted or who represented a danger,” testifies Ahmed Moussa.

“Terrorist activities”

AFP images in the Choujaiya district show residents searching through still smoking rubble and bodies lined up on the ground, wrapped in white sheets.

Gaza Civil Defense said five security officers, responsible for escorting humanitarian convoys, were also killed by an Israeli strike while they were driving in Khan Younes, in the south of the enclave.

“All the people targeted in this strike were involved in terrorist activities,” responded the Israeli army. She claimed to have fired “from a distance on humanitarian convoys”, but did not comment on the strike on the al-Ghoula family house.

Local rescuers reported the deaths of 15 other people during the day in strikes across the country, in the north, center and south.

Far from Gaza, in the United States, Joe Biden’s administration announced an arms sale to Israel estimated at $8 billion.

Early Sunday, the Israeli army also announced that it had intercepted “a missile launched from Yemen” before it entered Israeli territory. Warning sirens had previously sounded in Talmei Elazar, in the north of the country.

On Friday, the army said it had intercepted a missile as well as a drone, two shots then claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who have already launched several drone and missile attacks against Israel since the start of the war in Gaza. claiming to act in solidarity with the Palestinians. These insurgents supported by Iran and who control large swaths of Yemen also attack boats linked to Israel, the United States or the United Kingdom sailing in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The war in the Gaza Strip was triggered by the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures. .

That day, 251 people were kidnapped. Among them, 96 remain hostages in Gaza, 34 of whom were declared dead by the army. At least 45,717 people, mainly civilians, have been killed in the Israeli military campaign of reprisals in Gaza, according to the latest report on Saturday from the Hamas Ministry of Health.