Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Wednesday to destroy and eliminate “down to the roots” the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which announced it is studying “proposals” it received for a new ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where war has been raging for nearly 21 months.
Just days before his scheduled meeting in Washington with American President Donald Trump, who is expected to pressure him to end the war, Netanyahu declared that there will never again be a “Hamastan” in the Gaza Strip.
“It’s over. We will free all our hostages and eliminate Hamas (…) We will eliminate it down to the roots,” he insisted.
Hamas: studying “proposals” for Gaza ceasefire
According to a source informed about the progress of indirect negotiations, the “proposals” that Hamas received through Egypt and Qatar, whose governments are mediating, provide for a 60-day ceasefire, during which half of the remaining living hostages would be released in exchange for “a certain number” of Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
The head of Israeli diplomacy, Gideon Sa’ar, called for not “missing” the opportunity to free and return home the last hostages and captives who remain in the enclave after 636 days of war.
Donald Trump assured Tuesday that Israel agreed to finalize the terms for a two-month ceasefire and demanded that Hamas accept the agreement.
However, there is no indication that negotiations will take place and the prospect of ending the war causes reactions in Israel, as especially far-right ministers oppose it as long as Hamas remains active.
“We have only one word to say (…): shame!” countered the Families Forum, the main collective representing hostages in the Gaza Strip, the spearhead of mass mobilizations aimed at demanding the Netanyahu government close a deal for their release.
For Nadav Miran, brother of hostage Omri Miran and member of the Hope Forum, which includes relatives of hostages who oppose negotiations with Hamas, reaching a partial agreement “does not guarantee the return of all hostages (…) we must bring them all back at once.”
Of the 251 people who were abducted in Hamas’s assault on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, 49 are still held in the Palestinian enclave, but 27 of them have been declared dead by the Israeli army.
At least 47 killed in latest Israeli strikes on Gaza Strip
In the Gaza Strip, at least 47 people were killed Wednesday in airstrikes or from Israeli army fire, Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for civil protection, told AFP.
Among the victims was hospital director Dr. Marwan Al Sultan, according to an Indonesian NGO that manages this health facility in Beit Lahiya.
The Israeli army confirmed a strike on a building, stating without further clarification that it targeted a “key Hamas terrorist” and that it is examining information that “uninvolved civilians were injured.”
The Indonesian hospital was evacuated in an Israeli army operation in May and has not operated since.
The Israeli armed forces say they are “expanding” their operations to “destroy Hamas military capabilities in retaliation for the barbaric attacks” by fighters of the Palestinian movement.
Wednesday evening, they ordered the population to urgently evacuate from eastern neighborhoods of Gaza City (north), in anticipation of an attack.
They also reported intercepting two “projectiles” launched against Israel from the enclave and the death in battle of a 19-year-old member of theirs.
Wednesday, more than a hundred people gathered in the courtyard of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis (south) before the funeral of five members of the Abu Tayma family, who were killed a few hours earlier.
Inside the hospital, which operates only partially due to major shortages, care was being provided to bloodied children.
Meanwhile in Mawasi, passersby looked stunned at what remained of an Israeli strike against a displacement tent.
Many of the wounded in the hospital lived there, like most other Gaza residents who were forced to leave their homes due to the war, setting up camps.
Nothing remained but a shapeless mass in which pots, blankets and blood stains on the ground could be distinguished.
In Hamas’s assault on the southern part of Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, 1,219 people lost their lives on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.
In the large-scale Israeli military retaliation operations since then, at least 57,012 Palestinians have lost their lives, mostly civilians, according to the latest data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, which are considered reliable by the UN.
Source: APE-MPE
