A Hamas delegation is going this Saturday, May 4, to Cairo, Egypt, to “continue discussions” in order to “reach an agreement” on a truce in the Gaza Strip with Israel. The offer on the table includes a pause in the Israeli offensive and the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of hostages kidnapped during the unprecedented October 7 Hamas attack in southern Israel, which sparked the war . However, Hamas insists on a definitive ceasefire, which Israel refuses, which insists on carrying out a ground offensive on the Rafah sector (south), the last major bastion of the Islamist movement where more than a million people are crowded together. Palestinians, the majority displaced by the violence.
Information to remember
⇒ Armed groups stole 66 million euros from the Bank of Palestine, according to The world
⇒ Hamas in Egypt to discuss Gaza truce offer
⇒ An offensive on Rafah “could lead to a bloodbath”, according to the WHO
Bank of Palestine robbed in Gaza
Armed Palestinian groups, one of which claims to be Hamas, stole a total of 66 million euros last month from the coffers of several bank branches in Gaza, our colleagues reported this Saturday of World. The daily had access to a document sent by the Bank of Palestine “to certain international partners”, which describes spectacular heists including that which occurred in its main branch in Gaza City on April 16.
Questioned by AFP, the Palestinian Monetary Authority (PMA), an independent body which oversees the financial system in the Palestinian Territories, plans to issue a statement later today. According to the document obtained by The world, on April 16, employees “noticed that a hole had been drilled in the ceiling of the safe room”, explains the newspaper, specifying that “the criminals got their hands on cash dispenser cassettes, containing the “equivalent to 2.8 million euros in Israeli shekels”. Other much larger thefts also took place on April 17 and 18, with respectively “the equivalent of 29 million euros in different currencies” and “the equivalent of 33.6 million euros in Israeli shekels” stolen by commandos.
Hamas in Egypt to discuss Gaza truce offer
A Hamas delegation is going to Cairo (Egypt) this Saturday to “continue discussions” in order to “reach an agreement” on a truce in the Gaza Strip with Israel. In a statement released late the day before, the Palestinian Islamist movement said it was in a “positive spirit”. “In light of recent contacts with brother mediators in Egypt and Qatar, the Hamas delegation will travel to Cairo on Saturday to complete the discussions,” he added.
In power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, Hamas is however “determined” to obtain “a total cessation of Israeli aggression”, “the withdrawal” of Israeli forces and “a serious arrangement for the exchange” of hostages Israelis against Palestinian prisoners. A senior Hamas official confirmed to AFP that the delegation will arrive in Cairo in the morning and will be led by Khalil al-Hayya, number 2 of the movement’s political branch in the Gaza Strip.
And according to the site Axios, the head of the CIA, William Burns, already arrived in the Egyptian capital on Friday evening, a sign that the time for key decisions has come after months of negotiations. The mediators – Egypt, Qatar and the United States – have been waiting for almost a week for Hamas’ response to a new truce offer submitted at the end of April.
Hamas, “the only obstacle between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire”
“We are waiting to see if, really, they can agree to say yes to the ceasefire and the release of the hostages,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday at the McCain Institute Sedona Forum. in the state of Arizona. “The reality right now is that the only obstacle between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas,” he added.
Israel and the mediating countries are still awaiting a response from the Islamist movement to a proposal for a 40-day truce associated with the release of hostages held in Gaza, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Noting that Hamas militants “claim to represent” the Palestinian people, Antony Blinken assured that “if this is true, acceptance of a ceasefire should be obvious.” The American Secretary of State also estimated that an Israeli attack on Rafah, a town in the south of the Gaza Strip where more than a million Palestinians displaced by the war are crowded, would cause damage “beyond acceptable.”
An offensive on Rafah “could lead to a bloodbath”
“WHO is deeply concerned that a large-scale military operation in Rafah, Gaza, could lead to bloodshed and further weaken a health system already on its knees,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X on Friday , the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), about the city where there are 1.2 million Palestinians who have come to seek refuge.
For now, the Israeli army continues to bomb the city, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to launch a ground offensive to “annihilate”, according to him, the last brigades of Hamas, a movement he considers terrorist as well as the United States and the European Union. The Europeans, the UN and the United States, Israel’s main ally, have all forcefully asked Benjamin Netanyahu to abandon a ground offensive on the city.
In addition to the cost in human lives, an offensive would be “a hard blow to humanitarian operations throughout the Gaza Strip” because Rafah “is at the heart of humanitarian operations”, also warned the spokesperson for the Office of Affairs of the UN (Ocha), Jens Laerke, in Geneva. It would also weaken “an already broken health system”, of which only 12 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are still functioning, added the WHO in a press release.
The ICC warns against “threats” against it
The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday issued a warning to “individuals who threaten reprisals” – it or its staff -, saying that such actions could constitute an “attack on the administration of justice “. The Hague-based office of Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said it seeks to “engage constructively with all stakeholders whenever dialogue is consistent with its mandate”, in a statement published on X.
“This independence and impartiality are, however, undermined when individuals threaten to take reprisals against the Court or against Court staff” in the event of “decisions” on investigations falling within its mandate, he said. he adds. “Such threats, even if they are not followed through, can constitute an attack on the administration of justice” by the ICC, he warns. The ICC calls for an “immediate” end to “attempts to obstruct, intimidate or unduly influence its officials”. Karim Khan’s services did not want to specify to AFP who these threats emanated from and whether they were linked to Israel and the war in Gaza.