What happens after the end of the ceasefire in the Middle East?
The ceasefire is over: According to Israel's army, it has resumed fighting against the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The week-long ceasefire ended this morning without any further extension. What happened? The most important questions and answers.
Why has the deadline for a ceasefire expired?
Israel accuses the Islamist Hamas of breaking the ceasefire agreement. The terrorists had fired on Israeli territory, Israel's army declared. They had also failed to fulfill their obligation to release all female hostages, according to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel suspects that 15 women and children are still being held by Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas accuses Israel of refusing to accept any offers to release further hostages throughout the night during negotiations on a continuation of the ceasefire.
What does the continuation of the fighting mean for the people?
After around seven weeks of war, the suffering population is completely demoralized. Aid workers speak of a dramatic humanitarian crisis. In the south of the Gaza Strip, around two million Palestinian civilians are living in cramped emergency shelters. They had fled there following appeals from Israel.
A resumption of fighting will now make their situation even worse. It is likely that terrorists have also mingled with the civilians. Since the beginning of the ceasefire, more aid - more than 1000 trucks - have arrived in the Gaza Strip than before. It was initially unclear how much aid would be allowed in after the end of the ceasefire. According to aid organizations, however, the aid received last week was only a fraction of the humanitarian supplies needed.
What are the international community's concerns?
It fears that the number of civilian casualties will rise dramatically once again. According to Hamas, almost 15,000 people have already been killed and more than 36,000 injured. The information could not initially be independently verified. It is also unclear how many of the victims are civilians.
The World Health Organization also warns of the massive spread of disease, which could ultimately claim more lives than the fighting itself. Should Israel's army intensify its targeting of the south of the Gaza Strip, it is also questionable how the population there can be protected.
Israel must present humanitarian plans to protect the civilian population before resuming major military operations, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently demanded. The plans should, for example, precisely define the areas in which civilians in the southern and central Gaza Strip are safe. According to Israel's army, it published new security zones for the civilian population on Friday.
Why does Israel want to continue fighting?
Israel wants to destroy Hamas after the terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians on October 7 so that it will never again pose a threat to the inhabitants of Israel. A spokesman for the Islamist organization has already threatened to repeat the massacres. Israel also wants to free all hostages from the Gaza Strip.
The only reason why the terrorist organization had released many of those kidnapped in recent days was the military and diplomatic pressure exerted on them by Israel, government spokeswoman Tal Heinrich told CNN. The USA and Germany have so far supported Israel's rejection of a long-term ceasefire.
Is there a chance of another ceasefire?
According to Qatar's mediator, negotiations on a possible continuation of the ceasefire in the Gaza war are continuing despite the renewed fighting. However, the resumption of fighting has made the talks more difficult. In principle, Israel and Hamas agreed the week before last on a maximum timeframe for the ceasefire of ten days. However, the agreement expired after just seven days. It had previously been extended twice.
Negotiations on a further ceasefire could also be made more difficult by the fact that Hamas is now likely to make significantly higher demands in return for the release of the remaining hostages, most of whom are male. Another problem is that, according to the US government, not all the hostages are in Hamas hands. The broadcaster CNN reported, using unnamed diplomatic sources, that an estimated 40 hostages are being held by other groups.
How many hostages and prisoners have been exchanged so far?
Hamas has so far released 105 hostages, including 14 Germans and a number of foreigners who were released independently of the agreement between Israel and Hamas. In return, Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons. These were women and minors, the youngest being 14 years old.
They were accused of throwing firebombs, arson and knife attacks, among other things. Israel suspects that there are now around 145 hostages in the Gaza Strip. Among them are several Germans. According to Foreign Office spokesman Madschid Al-Ansari on Tuesday, mediator Qatar cannot confirm the exact number of remaining hostages.
What is known about the conditions of the hostage situation?
Relatives of hostages have reported in Israeli and international media that there was little food and on some days no food at all. Sometimes the abductees had to wait an hour and a half before they were allowed to go to the toilet. They slept on benches or pushed-together chairs.
The relative of a released twelve-year-old reported that children were threatened at gunpoint to keep them quiet. After his release, the boy reported that he had been forced to watch videos of the terrorist attack on Israel on October 7. He was also forced to spend the first 16 days of his captivity alone in a locked room.
How great is the extent of the destruction in the Gaza Strip?
Enormous, that much is certain, as countless photos from the war zone show. According to US researchers, between 67,000 and 88,000 buildings have been damaged since the start of the war. In the northern Gaza Strip, 50 to 60 percent of the buildings have been damaged.
What is Israel's long-term plan for the Gaza Strip?
That is unclear. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel must continue to play a role in securing the area even after a victory over Hamas. At the same time, the USA, arguably Israel's most important ally, is explicitly warning against a renewed occupation of the Gaza Strip.
The US government wants the Palestinian Authority to be responsible for the Gaza Strip as well as the West Bank in future. The long-term hope is a two-state solution, i.e. a peaceful coexistence of Israel and a Palestinian state - which currently seems unrealistic.
Source: www.dpa.com
