As Israeli army raids continue in southern Lebanon, discussions for a ceasefire agreement in Gaza will resume. Hamas has already set its conditions.
The essentials
- Israel announced the sending of a delegation to Qatar to negotiate an agreement on Gaza involving the release of hostages. Hamas, for its part, said it was ready for a conditional truce, a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory. The terrorist group “showed itself ready for a cessation of hostilities”, but demanded from Israel a “commitment to a ceasefire”, a “withdrawal from the Gaza Strip” and a “serious agreement for a exchange” of Israeli hostages kidnapped on October 7 and held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, indicates the leader of the Islamist group.
- This Friday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot in turn calls for a “ceasefire” in Lebanon on France Info. “Let’s stop the fire and move towards peace,” said the minister. The head of French diplomacy fears a “risk of civil war which would push Lebanon towards chaos and collapse” if solutions are not quickly found.
- “We discussed options to take advantage of this moment and the next steps to move the process forward,” Antony Blinken, American Secretary of State, currently present in the Middle East, also in favor of a peace outcome, declared this Thursday. .
- The Israeli army continues its bombings in Lebanon. During the night from Thursday to Friday, new strikes targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut. One of them caused the death of three journalists in Hasbaya. “The Israeli enemy waited for the journalists’ night break to surprise them while they were sleeping (…) This is an assassination, after surveillance and tracking, because there were eighteen journalists representing seven media institutions there “It’s a war crime,” said the Lebanese information minister.
Latest updates
10:07 – 20 dead in Gaza after Israeli air raid
While the announcement of future negotiations for a “ceasefire” in Gaza revives hope, at least 20 people were killed in the night from Thursday to Friday in the south of the Palestinian enclave, in Khan Younes, in two airstrikes by the Israeli army. Information confirmed by the Civil Defense of the Palestinian Territory. “A first bombing hit a family house in the al-Manara district, in the south-east of the city, killing 14 people. Another targeted a second house nearby, killing six people,” specifies France Info, this Friday October 25, 2024.
09:55 – Three journalists killed south of Beirut
An Israeli strike killed three journalists in Hasbaya, south of Beirut. The Lebanese information minister accuses the Jewish state of having deliberately targeted the press, he denounces a “war crime”. “The Israeli enemy waited for the journalists’ night break to surprise them while they were sleeping (…) This is an assassination, after surveillance and tracking, because there were eighteen journalists representing seven media institutions there “It’s a war crime,” he laments.
“Among the victims are cameraman Ghassan Najjar and technician Mohamed Reda, who worked for the pro-Iranian television channel Al-Mayadeen, as well as a cameraman from the Hezbollah television channel, Al-Manar,” the newspaper said. The World.
09:44 – The resumption of negotiations for a “ceasefire” hoped for “in the coming days”
Israel announced the sending of a delegation to Qatar to negotiate an agreement on Gaza involving the release of hostages. Hamas is now open to talks on a cease-fire in the Palestinian enclave. As a reminder, the last negotiations in the presence of mediators ended in failure last August. This time, Israeli and American mediators will meet in Doha to try to restart discussions.
Hamas “showed itself ready for a cessation of hostilities”, but demanded from Israel a “commitment to a ceasefire”, a “withdrawal from the Gaza Strip” and a “serious agreement for an exchange “Israeli hostages kidnapped on October 7 and held in Gaza against Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, said an official of the group to AFP. “I think our negotiators will meet in the coming days,” declared Antony Blinken, American Secretary of State present in the Middle East.
24/10/24 – 3:40 p.m. – Paris international conference raises $800 million for Lebanon
Objective achieved. The international conference in Paris on Lebanon made it possible to raise more than 800 million dollars in humanitarian aid as well as 200 million dollars in aid for the army, indicated the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, this Thursday . “We responded to the appeal launched by the United Nations by announcing substantial contributions, 800 million dollars to which are added significant contributions in kind,” he said. Initially, the UN launched an appeal to raise $426 million. France contributed 100 million euros, Germany committed 96 million euros.
10/24/24 – 3:25 p.m. – Hezbollah announces attack on Israel with “machine gun and rocket fire” this Thursday
This Thursday, Hezbollah announced that it had attacked IDF units which were advancing between the localities of Adaïssé, Rab, el-Thalathine and Taybé with “machine gun and rocket fire”. The Islamist movement also indicates that it is confronting Israeli weapons “at point blank range” in Aïta El-Chaab, in southern Lebanon “with automatic weapons and missiles”. An Israeli tank was finally destroyed while trying to intervene in Lebanon.
24/10/24 – 2:33 p.m. – Towards a truce in Gaza “in the days to come”?
This Thursday, American Secretary of State Antony Blinken just announced that he expected negotiators to meet in the coming days with the objective of reaching a truce in the Gaza Strip. “We discussed the options (…) and the next steps to move the process forward, and I expect our negotiators to meet in the coming days,” he explains during a press conference or hope seems to be reappearing, after a meeting with the Prime Minister of Qatar, one of the mediating countries in the war.
42,718. This is the number of deaths in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas terrorist offensive on October 7, 2023 in Israel. A figure communicated by the Ministry of Health of the Hamas government on Monday October 14, 2024 and which reveals the intensity of the fighting which has lasted for more than a year now. Over the months, tensions intensified, and as of October 27, 2023, Israel extended its ground operation to Gaza. The objective for Netanyahu and the IDF is clear: to “annihilate” Hamas. A one-week ceasefire nevertheless took place in November 2023. After a significant leap forward, on April 13, 2024, Iran launched its first massive attack on Israel. Hamas ally, Iran then fired nearly 350 explosive drones and missiles at the Jewish state. An attack in response to missiles fired at the embassy in Damascus, Syria on April 1, in which 11 people lost their lives, including seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Tuesday September 17, 2024, a new kind of attack broke into the war. Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies explode. Twelve deaths and nearly 3,000 injured have been recorded in Lebanon. Since its coordinated explosions, Israel has continued to strike Lebanon with air or ground raids. More than 1,000 people are killed in IDF strikes and thousands of Lebanese are forced to be displaced. On October 1, 2024, Iran responded by sending nearly 200 ballistic missiles directly to Israel. Since then, the two countries have been waging a merciless war. On October 8, 2024, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, threatened Lebanon with “destruction and suffering like those we see in Gaza” if the population of the country does not ” “liberated” not from Hezbollah. Comments described as “provocation” by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot.
Monday October 14, 2024, Lebanese Hezbollah threatened Israel with new attacks in a press release. As a reminder, Hezbollah had struck Haifa two days earlier, killing four Israeli soldiers and injuring no less than 60. At the start of the week, the terrorist organization indicated that “the resistance (…) promises the enemy”. The raid carried out “south of Haifa is only a foretaste of what awaits him if he decides to continue his attacks against our people”, she threatens. According to Palestinian doctors cited by Associated Press, the courtyard of a hospital in the Gaza Strip was then bombed by the Israeli army, killing at least four people and causing a fire in a camp for displaced people.