Historical Truce Agreement between Israel and Hamas

2023-11-24 09:07:45

Cover image: Trucks carrying humanitarian aid enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, hours after the start of a four-day truce in fighting between Israel and militants Palestinians from Hamas, November 24, 2023. SAID KHATIB / AFP

The truce in fighting between Israel and Hamas came into effect on Friday, November 24 at 7 a.m. local time (6 a.m. Paris time), and the first 13 hostages, women and children, are to be released during the afternoon. The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said Thursday it had a “first list of names” hostages and be in contact with their families.The agreement reached Wednesday between the Israeli government and the Islamist group provides for the exchange of fifty women and children detained by Hamas against Palestinian prisoners, as well as“a lull in the fighting” for four days.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, like his Egyptian counterparts, Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi, and American counterpart, Joe Biden, welcomed the agreement reached. This “humanitarian truce must make it possible to negotiate the conditions of a ceasefire” that must be “as sustainable as possible”, pleaded the French President, Emmanuel Macron. The UN spoke of ” not important “ but felt that “much remains to be done”.Returning from the Gaza Strip, Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, reiterated his call for a “long-term humanitarian ceasefire”. “Since my first visit two weeks ago, the humanitarian situation has already deteriorated considerably. Travel continues,” says M. Lazzarini in a press releaseadding that a million people are hosted in the premises of the UN agency in the Gaza Strip.The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, did not wish to say whether any French people were among the hostages whom Hamas has pledged to release. The head of diplomacy declared “hope that there [ait] French people among [eux]» ; “We are working on it, and I hope that tomorrow I will be able to tell you: “Yes, there were French people””.The Hamas government announced Wednesday that 14,854 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bombardments on Gaza since the start of the war. Among the deaths recorded to date are 6,150 children, the Hamas government said. In addition, 36,000 people were injured, according to the same source.The humanitarian pause will allow the entry of a “greater number of humanitarian and aid convoys, including fuel”Qatar underlined. Some 200 to 300 humanitarian aid trucks will enter the enclaveincluding eight with fuel and gas, said a Hamas executive, Taher Al-Nounou.The war also raises fears of a regional escalation, notably involving the Lebanese Hezbollah, in the north of Israel, and the Yemeni Houthi rebels, in the south. The son of Mohammad Raad, president of the Hezbollah group in the Lebanese Parliament, and four other fighters were killed Wednesday during an Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon, announced the Shiite movement allied to Hamas. Abbas Raad “fell a martyr on the road to Jerusalem”Hezbollah wrote in a statement.The United States intercepted drones launched from Yemen. A US warship patrolling the Red Sea on Thursday shot down attack drones launched from a region of Yemen controlled by Houthi rebels, the US military command in the Middle East said.