A Hamas delegation is expected in Egypt to discuss a ceasefire project also providing for the release of hostages still in the hands of the Palestinian Islamist movement. During the night from Thursday to Friday, Israeli forces increased strikes in the Gaza Strip, particularly on Rafah. The war between Israel and Hamas entered its 84th day this Friday, December 29.
Information to remember
⇒ A Hamas delegation is expected in Egypt to discuss a ceasefire project
⇒ The Israeli general staff spoke of a possible “expansion of fighting” on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon
⇒ An Israeli strike targeted the area around Damascus, the Syrian capital, on Thursday, the Syrian Defense Ministry announced
Discussions in Cairo for a ceasefire
A Hamas delegation is expected in Cairo this Friday to discuss a three-stage Egyptian plan which provides for renewable truces, staggered releases of Palestinian hostages and prisoners and, ultimately, a ceasefire ending the hostilities.
During this meeting, the Hamas delegation will transmit to the Egyptians “the response of the Palestinian factions, which includes several observations, to their plan”, told AFP an official of the Islamist movement requesting anonymity. These relate in particular “to the modalities of the planned exchanges and the number of Palestinian prisoners who will be released, and to obtaining guarantees for a total Israeli military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip”, added this official.
“We are in contact (with the mediators, editor’s note) at this very moment. I cannot provide more details. We are working to bring them all back,” declared Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu during a meeting Thursday in Tel Aviv with families of hostages.
Tensions in Lebanon and Syria
The conflict in Gaza is also reviving tensions across the Middle East, particularly on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where the Israeli general staff has spoken of a possible “expansion of the fighting”. The Israeli army reported numerous shots from southern Lebanon towards northern Israel, where warning sirens sounded several times in the afternoon on Thursday, and announced strikes on “positions ” of Hezbollah. Hezbollah, a powerful Lebanese movement supported by Iran, also accused Israel on Thursday of having hacked video surveillance cameras installed in homes and stores in southern Lebanon, calling on residents to disconnect these devices from the Internet.
Late Thursday evening, the Syrian Ministry of Defense spoke of Israeli strikes near Damascus and in the south of the country. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the strikes particularly targeted the area around Damascus airport, 24 hours after the resumption of flights suspended since an Israeli attack at the end of November. Israel has increased strikes in Syria in recent years, targeting Iranian-backed forces there. This country threatened Israel with “direct actions” after the death, on Monday, in a missile attack in Syria that it blames on Israel, of Razi Moussavi, a general in the Revolutionary Guards.
Red Sea: new Houthi attack foiled by the US navy
Another front in this expanding conflict: Yemen, from where the Houthi rebels, allies of Tehran, are increasing their fire towards the Red Sea to slow down international maritime traffic in “support” of Gaza. The US Navy said it shot down a drone and an anti-ship missile fired by the Houthis in the Red Sea on Thursday evening, saying it was the “22nd attempted attack” of its kind by the Yemeni rebels since mid -october.
New strikes in Gaza
The Israeli army continued its operations on Thursday in Khan Younes, the main city in the south of the Gaza Strip, but also in the refugee camps in the center of the territory where deadly night strikes were reported by the Hamas Ministry of Health . The Israeli army said its forces had carried out “a large-scale operation in the occupied West Bank to confiscate Hamas terrorist funds”, claiming to have arrested “21 people wanted for possession of terrorist funds”.
New rally for hostages in Israel
A new rally brought together nearly a thousand people in Jerusalem on Thursday evening demanding the release of the remaining hostages in the Gaza Strip. “Bring them home,” chanted a compact crowd in front of the Parliament in Jerusalem.
France welcomes two first injured Palestinian children
France welcomed two injured Palestinian children on Thursday, who were treated in pediatric hospital services, according to a press release from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Paris is planning “a new operation to welcome injured or seriously ill Palestinian children from next week”, says the Quai d’Orsay, “in accordance with the commitments of the President of the Republic” Emmanuel Macron.