International pressure intensified on Tuesday for a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas including a new release of hostages, after the Israeli announcement of an upcoming offensive on Rafah. Egypt, a traditional mediator between Israel and the Palestinians, hosted the American and Israeli intelligence directors as well as the Qatari prime minister on Tuesday for talks on a truce.
The families of the hostages held in Gaza, who continue to urge the government to do everything possible to allow their release, sent a message to the Israeli delegation, imploring: “Do not return until everyone is not returned – the living and the dead”.
Today’s news
⇒ Negotiations in Cairo on Gaza: the Israeli delegation has returned
⇒ Israeli army releases video of Hamas leader
⇒ The UN fears “a massacre in Gaza”
Negotiations in Cairo on Gaza: the Israeli delegation has returned
The Israeli delegation responsible for negotiations in Egypt, in Cairo, on a possible truce with Hamas in Gaza has returned to Israel, Israeli media reported this Wednesday. Several Israeli media, including the Jerusalem Post and the Times of Israel, reported Tuesday evening the return of the Israeli delegation, without further indication. The Israeli delegation is “on its way back from Cairo”, according to an official from the Prime Minister’s Office, quoted by Times of Israel.
Discussions between CIA Director William Burns, Mossad Chief David Barnea, Qatar Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Egyptian officials have been “positive” and will continue for “three next few days”, AlQahera News television, close to Egyptian intelligence, had previously announced, citing “a senior Egyptian official”. “Negotiations will continue for the next three days”, the official then declared at the end of this meeting.
For its part, Hamas is “open to the idea of discussing any initiative to put an end to the aggression and the war”, one of its executives assured AFP on condition of anonymity. “Hamas and other Palestinian movements are awaiting the results of the Cairo talks,” he added. In addition, an official from the Hamas political bureau, Khalil al-Hayya, will lead a delegation to Cairo to meet the heads of the Egyptian and Qatari intelligence services, probably this Wednesday, a source within Hamas told AFP. Islamist movement, in power in Gaza since 2007.
Video showing Hamas leader in Gaza in tunnel on October 10
The Israeli army released on Tuesday for the first time a video showing, according to it, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinouar, in a tunnel on October 10, three days after the attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil. The images, where he is seen walking through a tunnel with part of his family, come from a surveillance camera discovered during a special forces operation, army spokesman Daniel Hagari said during of a briefing broadcast on television. This is “the result of our hunt, this hunt will only stop when we have captured him dead or alive,” he added. According to the army, the video shows the alleged mastermind of the October 7 attack, who “fled with his children and one of his wives, led by his brother Ibrahim Sinouar.”
AFP was not able to independently verify the authenticity of this black and white video in which we see a young man leading a woman, three children and another man, presented as Yahya Sinouar who did not not been seen since the attack on October 7. “This video or another is not what really matters. What is important is the intelligence that we collect and which will allow us to find the senior Hamas officials and the hostages,” added Daniel Hagari, without specifying the place where the images were filmed.
Last week, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Yahya Sinouar was “on the run” and going “from hiding place to hiding place” as Israeli forces advancing into the southern Gaza Strip continue to bomb Khan Younes, his hometown.
Two Al Jazeera journalists seriously injured
Two Al Jazeera journalists were seriously injured Tuesday by an Israeli strike in the southern Gaza Strip, the Qatari channel said. According to Al Jazeera, correspondent Ismaïl Abou Omar and his cameraman Ahmed Matar were injured by a strike in the Rafah sector, at the southern tip of the territory.
Ismaïl Abou Omar’s right leg has been “amputated” and doctors are trying to save the left, the channel announced, broadcasting images of the reporter surrounded by doctors in an operating theater while specifying that his life was in danger. In Ahmed Matar’s case, he is “seriously injured”, Al Jazeera added. Questioned by AFP, the Israeli army did not immediately comment.
Israeli operations in Rafah: the UN fears a “massacre”
Israeli military operations in Rafah “could lead to a massacre in Gaza”, warned the head of UN humanitarian affairs, Martin Griffiths, on Tuesday, calling on Israel not to “continue to ignore” the appeals of the international community. “More than half of Gaza’s population – well over a million people – are crowding into Rafah, seeing death coming: they have little to eat, virtually no access to medical care, nowhere to sleep, no safe place,” he commented in a statement, describing an “assault incomparable in intensity, brutality and scale.”
Pretoria files new application before ICJ
South Africa announced on Tuesday that it had filed a new appeal with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest judicial body of the UN, to urgently examine Israel’s announcement of an upcoming military offensive. on Rafah and opposes if necessary “a further violation of rights”.
Pretoria said it had filed an urgent appeal on Monday with the ICJ, which sits in The Hague. South Africa had already taken the matter to court accusing Israel of “genocide” in Gaza. The judges, who did not comment at this stage on the question of whether Israel is actually committing genocide or not, nevertheless ordered it to prevent such acts.