Numerous civilians are said to have already left Rafah before Israel’s announced military offensive. Will there be a last-minute ceasefire? The news at a glance.
Shortly before Israel’s expected ground offensive in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, there are new signs of movement in the stalled ceasefire negotiations, according to media reports. Israel’s government is therefore prepared to abandon its original demand for the release of 40 living hostages by the Islamist Hamas in return for a temporary ceasefire.
Israeli media reported that Israel was willing to accept the release of just 20 hostages – 33 hostages, according to a senior official – in a first phase of a deal. These are Israeli women, men over 50 and seriously ill people, it said. Talks are planned today between an Israeli negotiating team and an Egyptian delegation in Israel. Egypt wants to reach an agreement to avert Israel’s military operation in Rafah.
Temporary port off Gaza should be operational at the beginning of May
Meanwhile, US ships are operating off the coast of the embattled Gaza Strip to build a makeshift port facility to supply the needy population with relief goods. The US military has started work and is deploying ships, said Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder.
The US government expects the facility, which is being built off the northern coast of the war zone, to be operational in early May. The US government once again warned urgently of an impending famine in Gaza. Meanwhile, in Israel, relatives of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip protested outside Israel’s military headquarters in Tel Aviv, loudly demanding their return, while the war cabinet met inside.
The United States, Germany and 16 other countries had previously called on Hamas to immediately release all hostages who have been held in the Gaza Strip for more than 200 days. “The fate of the hostages and the civilian population in Gaza, who are protected by international law, is of international importance,” they said in a joint statement.
The Islamist terrorist organization recently rejected a compromise proposal from the mediating states that would release 40 hostages against 900 Palestinian prisoners during a six-week ceasefire.
Fighting for the release of the hostages
Accordingly, Hamas should have released women, female soldiers, men over 50 and men under 50 with serious illnesses. However, Hamas reportedly said it did not have 40 living hostages from those categories, prompting Israel to suggest filling the gap with soldiers or men under 50. But no agreement was reached. Until a few weeks ago, Israel assumed that almost 100 of the approximately 130 hostages remaining in Gaza were still alive. It is now feared that significantly more of them could already be dead.
Now, according to reports, Israel is ready to be flexible. However, the reports did not indicate how long a ceasefire would last in return for the release of 20 or 33 hostages. It is also unclear whether and to what extent Palestinian prisoners would be released from Israeli prisons. It was said that Israel would not agree to an end to the war, as Hamas is demanding.
Israel and Hamas have been negotiating indirectly for months over a ceasefire and the release of additional hostages that terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups kidnapped into Gaza on October 7 last year. Egypt, the USA and Qatar are acting as mediators. Egypt is concerned that if Israel attacks Rafah, Palestinians could cross the border from Gaza in large numbers.
Report: Tens of thousands leave Rafah
However, Israel believes an offensive in Rafah is essential to destroy the Hamas battalions that remain there. There are also suspected hostages there. According to aid organizations, more than a million people had sought refuge in Rafah from the fighting in the rest of the Gaza Strip.
However, in view of the impending offensive, 150,000 to 200,000 Palestinian civilians have now left Rafah, some of them towards the previously embattled city of Khan Yunis, the Jerusalem Post reported, citing the army. Israel’s military hopes that more civilians will follow their example and move to newly built tent cities in the south and center of Gaza. The military did not want to comment on the report when asked.
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza is incredibly dire,” said a representative of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Almost 30 percent of children in the north of the sealed-off coastal strip showed signs of severe malnutrition. In the south, almost a quarter of the population is faced with “catastrophic food insecurity”.
The US government had already announced the construction of the temporary port at the beginning of March to bring food, water and medicine to the war zone. Israel’s army wants to help with logistics and security. According to US government officials, around a thousand US soldiers are involved in the project, but they would not enter the war zone.
Efforts to increase aid to Gaza
The aid deliveries would initially be made via Cyprus, it was said. Merchant ships are supposed to take them from there to the floating facility located several kilometers off the coast of Gaza. The deliveries would then be reloaded onto smaller ships on the platform. From there, the relief supplies will be brought to a makeshift floating jetty on the Gaza Strip using smaller ships loaded with trucks.
In the Gaza Strip itself, the goods would be unloaded at a safe location, then picked up by US partners and distributed to the civilians in need in the war zone, it said.
The war was triggered by the unprecedented massacre with more than 1,200 deaths that terrorists from Hamas and other groups carried out in Israel on October 7th last year. More than 250 people were deported to Gaza. Israel responded there with massive air strikes and a ground offensive. According to the Hamas-controlled health authority, more than 34,200 people have been killed and more than 77,200 others injured in the Gaza Strip since the war began.
The numbers, which do not distinguish between fighters and civilians, cannot be independently verified. Given the high number of civilian casualties and the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, which is roughly the size of Munich, Israel came under strong international criticism.