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.
The fact of the day
After almost four months of war, the leader of Hamas, Ismaïl Haniyeh, based in Qatar, affirmed Tuesday that his movement had received a truce proposal with Israel, the result of a meeting in Paris between the director of the CIA, William Burns , and Egyptian, Israeli and Qatari officials. “Hamas is examining the proposal” and preparing its response, according to a statement in Gaza from the movement, considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel.
Qatar, the main mediator in this conflict, announced Monday that a framework for a truce accompanied by new releases of hostages would be transmitted to Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, affirmed on Tuesday that Israel would not “withdraw the army from the Gaza Strip” and would not release “thousands of Palestinian terrorists” in exchange for hostages.
The number of the day
26,751. This is the number of people killed, mostly women, children and adolescents, in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement, according to a report published Monday by the Hamas Ministry of Health. . Bombings and fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas have left dozens dead in 24 hours in the Gaza Strip: 128 people were in the territory, including dozens in Khan Younes, the large city in southern Gaza. .
Sentence of the day
“There is in no way an organization capable of replacing or substituting for the enormous capacity, the fabric of UNRWA, and their knowledge of the population of Gaza”
Sigrid Kaag, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Gaza, was concerned about Israel’s questioning of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). Civilian aid operations have been under threat since last weekend after Israel accused 12 of its 30,000 regional employees of involvement in the bloody October 7 attack carried out by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
Twelve countries – including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan – announced the suspension of their aid to UNRWA. A closed-door meeting of these major donors is planned for Tuesday evening at UN headquarters in New York, at the initiative of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, to try to maintain funding for the organization.
Today’s trend
The Israeli army admitted on Tuesday to sending “large volumes of water” into tunnels used by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip to “neutralize” them, ensuring that it did not compromise access to water. drinking water of the civilian population. Nicknamed “the Gaza metro” by the Israeli military, the maze of galleries dug by Hamas under the Gaza Strip was first used to circumvent the blockade imposed by Israel after Hamas took power in this territory in 2007.
In addition to the potentially deadly trap that the tunnels constitute for Israeli soldiers, several Israeli hostages released during the November truce had indicated that they had been held there.