To better understand the latest events in the conflict between the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and Israel, 20 minutes takes stock every evening. Between the strong declarations, the diplomatic advances or the dramatic results of the fighting, here are the main points of the day.
News of the day
One billion euros in additional aid for Gaza since October 7
Hastily announced last week, the Paris humanitarian conference aimed to mobilize donors and international partners to help civilians in besieged Gaza. Around fifty countries and NGOs participated, in the absence of a representative of the Israeli authorities. “It is the protection of civilians that we must work on. This requires a very rapid humanitarian pause and we must work towards a ceasefire,” Emmanuel Macron declared before this assembly.
The conference made it possible to increase to one billion euros the new commitments made since the outbreak of the conflict. France will increase its additional aid from 20 to 100 million euros. But the humanitarians present remain bitter. “We are quite disappointed because there was no consensus on a ceasefire (…) Beyond the mobilized aid, the challenge is to get it back to Gaza,” underlined Jean- François Corty, vice-president of Médecins du Monde.
The number of the day
2 hostages on a video
Palestinian Islamic Jihad published this Thursday a video of two people presented as two Israeli hostages, a woman in her seventies and a teenager, whom it claims to be holding in Gaza. “We are ready to release them for humanitarian reasons when the security conditions on the ground are met,” declared Abou Hamza, the spokesperson for the military branch of Islamic Jihad, indicating at the same time that his group had participated in the October 7 attack on Israel alongside Hamas. He claims that his troops are holding other hostages, without specifying the number.
Abou Hamza indicates that regarding the oldest hostage, it has become impossible “to give her the care she needs, due to lack of fuel and electricity and basic means of survival”. Israel’s reaction to these new images of hostages was not long in coming: “psychological terrorism of the worst kind”, denounced an army spokesperson, Richard Hecht, during a press briefing. .
Sentence of the day
There is no humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. »
This is what an Israeli military official said this Thursday, completely out of step with the Paris conference, while recognizing the “many difficulties” facing civilians in the Palestinian territory. Israel “facilitates the delivery of humanitarian aid,” said Colonel Moshe Tetro, head for Gaza of the Israeli Defense Ministry body overseeing civilian activities in the Palestinian Territories. “We know that the civilian situation in the Gaza Strip is not easy,” he added.
Today’s trend
Diplomatic negotiations on several fronts
Ismaïl Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas political bureau, who lives in Qatar, arrived this Thursday in Egypt where, according to a press release from the Islamist movement, he spoke with the head of the intelligence service. This “trip” comes as according to certain sources, Qatar is negotiating the release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for a truce in hostilities for a few days.
At the same time, the heads of the Israeli and American intelligence services discussed a “possible humanitarian truce” in Doha on Thursday with Qatari officials. Talks are therefore open on several fronts, knowing that Egypt and Qatar have already played a role in the release of two female hostages at the end of October.