Israel announces “draft deal” on table for release of Gaza hostages

Israel announced on Monday that it had discussed with foreign negotiators meeting in Qatar a new draft agreement on the release of hostages held in Gaza, at a time when war rages against Hamas in the Palestinian territory and against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The head of Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence agency, David Barnea, met in Qatar with CIA chief Bill Burns and the Qatari prime minister to discuss this “new draft agreement,” the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced.

The discussions “will continue in the coming days between the mediators and Hamas,” to study “the feasibility of the talks” and “try to move them toward an agreement,” the Prime Minister's office indicated.

The project, according to this source, “integrates previous proposals and takes into account recent events in the region.”

The day before, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, whose country is one of the mediators with the United States and Qatar, had proposed a two-day ceasefire “during which four Israeli hostages held in Gaza would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners” held by Israel.

This truce would be followed “within ten days” by negotiations with a view to a “complete ceasefire and the entry of humanitarian aid” into the territory.

– “Stop” the war –

US President Joe Biden said Monday that his teams were taking stock of ongoing efforts. “We have to stop this war. It has to stop, it has to stop, it has to stop,” he repeated, after voting early in the US election.

Despite international pressure, Israel is continuing its offensive against Hamas and Hezbollah, two Islamist movements supported by Iran, and on Saturday carried out strikes against military targets in Iranian territory.

Iran is seeking to build “stockpiles of nuclear bombs with the aim of destroying Israel” and “could threaten the entire world,” Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday.

Saturday's strikes “changed the balance of power” between the two countries, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, adding that “the enemy has been weakened, both in its ability to build missiles and in its ability to defend itself.”

Iran threatened Israel on Monday with “unimaginable” consequences after these strikes carried out in response to Iranian missile launches on Israel on October 1.

In this tense context, the UN Security Council must meet urgently on Monday at 19:00 GMT, at the request of Iran, to discuss the situation in the Middle East.

– Strikes on Tyre –

Rescuers search for survivors in the rubble of a building destroyed by an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on October 28, 2024 © AFP – Kawnat HAJU

In Lebanon, Israel is continuing its campaign of airstrikes launched on September 23 against Hezbollah, which has promised to fight until the end of the offensive in Gaza against Hamas, its ally.

On Monday, the Israeli air force repeatedly bombed the Mediterranean city of Tyre, in southern Lebanon, killing seven people, according to the authorities.

Israel says it wants to neutralize Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, which borders its territory, in order to allow the return to northern Israel of 60,000 residents displaced by incessant rocket fire since the start of the war in Gaza more than a year ago.

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Destruction after Israeli strikes on the Lebanese village of Shmistar, in the Bekaa Valley, on October 28 2024 © AFP – –

On September 30, the Israeli army launched a ground offensive in southern Lebanon, where it announced that it had lost 37 soldiers in the fighting against Hezbollah.

At least 1,672 people have been killed since September 23 in Lebanon, according to an AFP count based on official data and probably an underestimate.

The Shiite Islamist movement claimed responsibility for several rocket and artillery attacks on Monday near the Israeli border, as well as rocket fire on the Stella Maris naval base near Haifa, the major port in northern Israel.

According to the Israeli army, approximately 115 “projectiles” were fired Monday by Hezbollah towards Israel.

Hezbollah also claimed to have “ambushed” Israeli soldiers near Kfar Kila, a border village in southern Lebanon, followed by fighting that, according to it, left “dead and wounded” Israeli ranks.

– “Food and water” –

Palestinians pray in front of the bodies of their loved ones, killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on October 27, 2024 © AFP – –

In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army announced that it had killed “dozens of terrorists” in the Palestinian refugee camp of Jabalia, a sector in the north of the territory where it has been leading an air and ground offensive since October 6, claiming that Hamas fighters are trying to regroup there.

“Our forces are in the center of the camp” and “we must clear it,” said an Israeli military official, specifying that this would take “several weeks.”

The war in Gaza was triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the death of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data, including hostages killed or killed in captivity.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghai in Tehran on October 28, 2024 © AFP – ATTA KENARE

Of the 251 people kidnapped during the attack, 97 remain hostages in Gaza, 34 of whom have been declared dead by the army.

In retaliation, Israel vowed to wipe out Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, and launched an offensive that has killed at least 43,020 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas government's health ministry, which the UN considers reliable.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a ceremony marking the first anniversary according to the Hebrew calendar of the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, October 27, 2024 © AFP – GIL COHEN-MAGEN

The war has displaced almost all of the 2.4 million people in the Gaza Strip, subjected to severe shortages in the territory besieged by Israel.

Walid Abou Shawish, a 40-year-old man who fled the north to Khan Younis in the south, told AFP that he “sold everything to buy a tent” for his family of nine.

“I have no more income, I spent everything on food and drinking water,” he said. entrusted.

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