News of the day
Hamas welcomes Vladimir Putin’s “efforts” and releases two Russian hostages held in Gaza. Yelena Trupanov, 50, and Irena Tati, 73, according to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, were handed over earlier Wednesday by Hamas to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Palestinian Islamist movement said in a statement. a statement.
On Sunday, Hamas had already released Ron Krivoi, an Israeli-Russian hostage, in gratitude for the Russian president’s “support of the Palestinian cause”. The two freed women arrived in Egypt via the Rafah crossing point, Egyptian television confirmed.
The number of the day
10 months. Like the age of Sfir Bibas, youngest hostage kidnapped. The Israeli army said Wednesday it was “verifying” the announcement by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas of the death of a ten-month-old baby, the youngest of the hostages kidnapped on October 7, his mother and his 4-year-old brother. years. The army is “verifying the veracity of the information” and its representatives have “spoken with the Bibas family,” it said in a statement. “The responsibility for the safety of all the hostages in the Gaza Strip lies with Hamas, which endangers the lives of the hostages, including nine children. Hamas must return them immediately.”
Sentence of the day
Netanyahu has now etched his name in history as the Butcher of Gaza”
These are the words of Turkish President Erdogan towards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And that’s not all. The head of state estimated that Netanyahu “endangers the security of the Israeli people, as well as that of all Jews, by provoking anti-Semitism with the murders he committed in Gaza.”
A fervent defender of the Palestinian cause, the Turkish president took up the cause of Hamas as the number of Palestinian victims in the Gaza Strip increased, due to Israeli reprisals after the deadly attack by the Islamist movement on October 7 which left 1,200 dead in Israel, mainly civilians.
The Turkish head of state has several times described Israel as a “terrorist state”, believing that Hamas was a “group of liberators who protect their land”.
Today’s trend
Officially, the truce in force between Hamas and Israel is due to end this Thursday. But a source close to the Islamist movement said it “agreed to extend the truce by four days”. The three mediator countries (Egypt, Qatar, United States) are working to obtain a lasting ceasefire.
The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken is also expected in Israel to try to extend the truce, which would also lead to new releases of hostages. A source close to Hamas announced this Wednesday evening that a new group of Israeli hostages was handed over to the Red Cross.
Every evening since Friday, around ten Israeli hostages, all women and children, have been released by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In return, three times as many Palestinian prisoners, including women and young people under the age of 19, are released from Israeli prisons.