Hope for Hamas hostages? Biden slightly optimistic
40 days after the Hamas terror attack on Israel, negotiations over the hostages taken to the Gaza Strip are raising some hope.
The release of at least 50 women and children and a three to five-day ceasefire are being discussed, a person familiar with the negotiations told the German Press Agency. In the USA, President Joe Biden said he was "slightly hopeful" that the hostages would be freed. In an unexpectedly unanimous vote, the UN Security Council urged Israel to cease fire for several days.
Fighters of the terrorist organization Hamas from the Gaza Strip attacked Israel on 7 October and brutally killed around 1200 people. At the same time, around 240 people were taken hostage. Israel then launched air strikes and a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip at the end of October. According to Palestinian figures, more than ten thousand people were killed.
According to the UN, the supply situation is catastrophic. Israel is also under international pressure for its conduct of the war - especially since an attack on the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, the Shifa Clinic. According to Israel, weapons, computers and military equipment were discovered there. However, the significance of this discovery remained unclear at first. In any case, information from the war zone can rarely be independently verified.
Is a hostage deal in the making?
Despite the fierce fighting - Hamas is also repeatedly firing rockets at Israel - negotiations are underway for the release of the hostages. According to dpa, a person familiar with the situation told dpa that more aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip and the release of an unspecified number of women and minors from Israeli prisons are also being discussed. Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, had agreed to these points in principle.
Egyptian security circles also reported that Hamas had agreed to a ceasefire lasting several days and the release of 50 women and children. In return, 75 Palestinian women and children were to be released. In addition, the delivery of relief supplies for the Gaza Strip is to be increased to 200 truckloads per day and the daily import of fuel is to be made possible.
US President Biden said in San Francisco: "I am working to see how I can help ensure that the hostages are released and that there is a pause long enough to make this possible." He spoke of cooperation with Qatar.
According to Israeli sources, the youngest hostage abducted on October 7 was ten months old; a total of 32 children were reported. Sara Netanyahu, the wife of the Israeli Prime Minister, wrote in a letter to the American First Lady Jill Biden that a pregnant woman had given birth to her baby in the hands of Hamas. This gives an indication that Israel may know more about the fate of the prisoners than is publicly known.
USA waives veto in the Security Council
For the first time in a long time, the Security Council managed to pass a resolution on the Middle East conflict. A resolution introduced by Malta calls for "urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip for a sufficient number of days" to ensure humanitarian aid. This came about because the USA refrained from vetoing the resolution and abstained, as did Russia and the UK. Germany is not currently a member of the Security Council.
Israel rejects longer humanitarian ceasefires as long as the hostages are held by Hamas. "Israel calls on the Security Council and the international community to resolutely demand the release of all Israeli hostages, as stipulated in the resolution," the Foreign Ministry stated.
Israel takes control of Gaza port
From the war zone, the Israeli army reported that it had taken "operational control" of the port of the city of Gaza in the northern Gaza Strip, which had previously been controlled by Hamas. Local sources in the Gaza Strip confirmed the takeover to dpa. According to the Israeli army, it also bombed the house of Hamas leader Ismail Haniya in the Gaza Strip. Hamas circles reported that the house was empty.
Israel's army again called on civilians in several districts of the embattled city of Gaza to flee and set a deadline of the afternoon. There have been similar calls for weeks, and hundreds of thousands have fled from the north to the south of the coastal strip. However, there have also been several Israeli air strikes there.
In the border area with Lebanon, Israel once again attacked targets of the Shiite Hezbollah militia from the air, according to the army. It is said to have been in response to shelling from there.
Germany is the largest donor of humanitarian aid for Gaza
According to the Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Katharina Stasch, Germany is the largest humanitarian donor for aid in the Gaza Strip. Stasch described the situation in the coastal area as dramatic.
Around 30 independent rapporteurs from the United Nations warned in Geneva of genocide in the Gaza Strip. They referred to the Israeli bombardments and the closure of the coastal strip following the Hamas attack.
During talks in Israel, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell called in no uncertain terms for more to be done to protect the civilian population in the Gaza Strip. "One horror does not justify another", he said on the fringes of a meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen. In recent weeks, innocent civilians had lost their lives, including thousands of children. Borrell added that he understood the anger following the actions of Hamas terrorists, but asked not to be consumed by anger himself.
- Despite the ongoing conflicts between Hamas and Israel, President Joe Biden expressed some optimism regarding the potential release of the hostages taken to Gaza, expressing his willingness to help facilitate their release and a paused period.
- Recent negotiations between Israel and Hamas involve discussions for the release of at least 50 women and children from Israeli prisons and a potential ceasefire, an agreement that was also urged by the UN Security Council in an unprecedented unanimous vote.
- Furthermore, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on leaders worldwide, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Biden, to use their influence to bring an end to the hostilities in Gaza and ensure the safe release of all hostages.
Source: www.dpa.com
