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
A total of 24 hostages (13 Israelis, ten Thais and one Filipino) were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza by Hamas, according to the Qatari Foreign Ministry. The freed hostages arrived Friday evening “in Israeli territory”, announced the Israeli army, saying they “welcome their return home”. They “underwent initial medical examinations”, an army press release immediately indicated.
The Qatari minister also announced that “39 women and children detained in Israeli prisons” had also been released. A list of 39 names of Palestinian prisoners – 15 children and 24 women – was released at midday by the Commission responsible for prisoners within the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
The number of the day
230. This is, in total, the number of trucks containing food aid which must enter Gaza this Friday, explained Waël Abou Omar, director of communications at the Rafah crossing point, on the Palestinian side.
Sentence of the day
Taking control of the northern Gaza Strip is the first step in a long war and we are preparing for the next phases. »
These are the words spoken this Friday by the spokesperson for the Israeli army, Daniel Hagari. At the end of the truce, the Israeli government and the army committed to “continue” the fighting against Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, its main ally, and the European Union.
Doctor Abou Salmiya said he received an evacuation “order” on November 18 after having said he had refused a previous one, while the Israeli army claimed to have evacuated hundreds of patients and displaced people from Al-Shifa to the “request” from the same doctor. The Israeli military claimed to have evidence that the facility was used as a military center by Hamas.
Today’s trend
A four-day humanitarian truce in Gaza, renewable, came into force on Friday at 7 a.m. (local time) after an agreement between Israel and Hamas, concluded under the aegis of Qatar. It also provides for the release of a total of 50 hostages in exchange for 150 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons as well as the daily entry of aid into Gaza. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had started a “vast operation” to reunite Palestinian hostages and prisoners with their families. It “will take place over several days” in order to “facilitate” the transfer of hostages from Gaza and that of Palestinians to the West Bank, the organization said in a press release.
Note that from Friday morning, thousands of Palestinians displaced by the conflict took advantage of the truce and flocked to the roads in the south of the territory to “return home”. Leaflets in Arabic, launched into the Gaza Strip from the air by the Israeli army, however, warned that “the war is not yet over” and that “returning to the North is prohibited”. For what ? Because the army considers the north of the Gaza Strip, from which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled to the south, as a combat zone. She claims that this part of the territory, where Gaza City is located, is home to the center of Hamas infrastructure.
Calm also reigns in the border area between southern Lebanon and northern Israel, where exchanges of fire have taken place daily in recent weeks between the Israeli army and the powerful Lebanese movement Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, according to the the official Lebanese agency, an AFP photographer and residents.