On Saturday, in Egypt, during a trip to the crossing point with the city of Rafah, located in the south of the Palestinian territory, the UN boss had already denounced the ” pain “ Gazans, prisoners of“a never-ending nightmare. On Sunday in Cairo, during a joint press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri, Antonio Guterres explicitly called “Israel to remove the last obstacles to aid” for the Gaza Strip, threatened with famine.
“The whole world believes that it is high time to silence the guns and put in place an immediate ceasefire,” he added, while demanding at the same time the immediate release of “all hostages” held in Gaza.
Since October 9, Israel has imposed a complete siege on Gaza and strictly controlled the aid which arrives mainly from Egypt via Rafah. However, according to the UN, these controls reduce the number of trucks entering the Palestinian territory.
“On one side of the border, we see humanitarian trucks as far as the eye can see, on the other a humanitarian catastrophe which is getting worse every day,” noted Antonio Guterres.
84 dead in 24 hours according to Hamas
Meanwhile, however, Israeli bombing and fighting continues in the Palestinian territory. According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, in 24 hours, the bombings left 84 dead, notably in the cities of Gaza, in the north, and Khan Younes and Rafah, in the south.
Since the start of the war, which broke out on October 7 after an unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israeli soil, and which led to Israeli retaliation, 32,226 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip according to the same source. Israel, for its part, deplores the death on October 7 of at least 1,160 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli sources, as well as the kidnapping of around 250 people, 130 of whom are still hostages in Gaza and 33 are said to have died.
On Sunday, the Israeli army announced that it would continue its ground and air operations in Khan Younes. In Gaza City, the army is continuing its operation launched on March 18 against the al-Chifa hospital complex, which according to Israel houses Hamas fighters.
“Deep differences” on a truce
As for the negotiations on a truce, led by the United States as well as Qatar and Egypt, they show no sign of progress. After several days of new talks in Qatar, the heads of the CIA, Bill Burns, and Mossad, David Barnea, left Doha on Saturday, according to a source close to the discussions. They go “inform their respective teams” of these negotiations, which took place “focused on details and a ratio for the exchange of hostages and prisoners”, according to this source.
In a proposal sent to mediators in mid-March, Hamas said it was ready for a six-week truce, with the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. But on Saturday, an official of the Islamist movement reported “deep differences”:
Israel “refuses to accept a complete ceasefire, it refuses a complete withdrawal of its forces from Gaza” and wants to keep the management of relief and humanitarian aid “under its control”, he told the AFP.
While the United States calls on Israel to renounce an invasion of Rafah, where according to the UN there are nearly a million and a half Palestinians, most of them displaced by the war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to to repeat that a land offensive is necessary in order to achieve “total victory” against Hamas. On Friday, he said Israel was prepared to carry out this ground offensive in Rafah even without American support.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is expected in Washington on Sunday. This is his first since the start of the war.