Hamas said it was “ready” for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. He called on Donald Trump to “put pressure” on Israel, which carried out new bombings on Friday on the Palestinian territory totally devastated by more than a year of war.
Since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered on October 7, 2023 by a Hamas attack on Israeli soil, diplomatic initiatives have not led to a ceasefire, with Hamas and Israel accusing each other mutually to block any agreement.
Israeli military operations have plunged the Palestinian territory into a serious humanitarian crisis and the conflict has spread to the Middle East, with Israel also fighting the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, which opened a front against it in support of Hamas, severely weakened.
Put pressure on Israel
“Hamas is ready to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in the event that a ceasefire proposal is presented and on the condition that (Israel) respects it,” assured AFP a member of his political bureau, Bassem Naïm, calling on “the American administration and Trump to put pressure on the Israeli government to stop the aggression” in Gaza.
The recent election of Donald Trump to the White House could breathe new life into the conflict, with the Republican having promised to bring peace to the region.
Qatari mediation suspended
Hamas’ proposal also comes nearly a week after Qatar announced the suspension of its role as mediator in the war, urging all parties to be “serious.”
Mr. Naïm reaffirmed that Hamas wanted a “serious agreement for an exchange of prisoners”, namely Palestinian prisoners held by Israel for hostages taken on October 7, 2023 to Gaza.
During the Hamas attack, 251 people were kidnapped on Israeli soil. A total of 97 hostages remain in Gaza, 34 of whom were declared dead by the army.
Video of a hostage
Islamic Jihad, an armed Palestinian group that participated in the October 7 attack, also broadcast on Friday morning a video extract of Israeli hostage Sacha Trupanov, speaking to a member of the government coalition, so that he could contribute to his release and that of the other hostages still in captivity in Gaza.
Since the start of the war, a single truce had emerged and allowed the release of more than 100 hostages at the end of November 2023.
Nearly 44,000 dead
On Friday, an Israeli strike destroyed the house of Mohamed Baraka, a Palestinian from Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
“I was woken up by the bombing at 2:30 a.m.,” he told AFPTV, standing amid the rubble and broken glass littering the ruins of his house, saying the strike left “three martyrs and 15 injured ” and calling on “the world to end the war.”
The Israeli offensive left 43,764 dead in the Palestinian territory, the majority civilians, according to data from the Hamas government’s Ministry of Health.
Lebanon
At the same time, the Israeli army launched an intense bombing campaign in Lebanon on September 23, targeting in particular the strongholds of Hezbollah, followed by a ground offensive in the south of the country on September 30.
Israel says it wants to neutralize the pro-Iranian movement in the border regions of southern Lebanon to allow the return home of some 60,000 residents of northern Israel displaced by the shooting of the pro-Iranian movement.
A new series of “violent” Israeli raids targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday, reported the Lebanese national information agency (Ani), notably a very lively sector of the capital.
Ani also reported Israeli airstrikes carried out overnight on the town of Nabatiyeh (south).
More than 3,300 dead
For its part, the Israeli army said Friday morning that it had targeted “command centers” of Hezbollah’s elite unit, Al-Radwan, the day before in the Nabatiyeh area, as well as rocket launchers used Thursday to shooting in northern Israel.
She also indicated that sirens had gone off in northern Israel, particularly in the Bay of Haifa, ensuring that she had intercepted “two projectiles” coming from Lebanon on Friday.
More than 3,300 people have died in Lebanon since September 23, the majority civilians, according to the Ministry of Health.
This article was automatically published. Sources: ats / afp
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