Hamas claims to be close to “concluding a truce agreement”

Cover image: An Israeli strike causes a plume of smoke in the south of the Gaza Strip, in a devastated setting. November 20, 2023. JOHN MACDOUGALL / AFP

Talks accelerate Tuesday for the release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for a truce in the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian Islamist movement accuses Israel of a deadly strike against a besieged hospital. » The (Hamas) delivered his response to the brothers of Qatar and the mediators. We are getting closer to concluding a truce agreement », declared Hamas leader Ismaïl Haniyeh, quoted in a brief message on the Palestinian movement’s Telegram account. The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric, met on Monday evening with the leaders of Qatar and Mr. Haniyeh, based in the Gulf emirate, to“advance on humanitarian issues linked to the armed conflict in Israel and Gaza”.
“The best guarantee of Israel’s security is the creation of a Palestinian state. »declared Monday the head of diplomacy of the European Union (EU), Josep Borrell, after a meeting with the twenty-seven foreign ministers. It is “a fundamental political conclusion” of his discussions in the region, explained the EU’s top diplomat.
US President Joe Biden said ” believe ” that an agreement was close to release hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Families of Israeli children held hostage by Hamas took on the United Nations on Monday, urging it to press for their release during a demonstration outside the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Tel -Aviv.
Twenty-eight premature babies evacuated on Sunday from a hospital in Gaza City, at the heart of the fighting between Israel and Hamas, arrived in Egypt on Monday., the Palestinian Islamist movement accusing Israel of a deadly strike against another besieged establishment. Lined up on stretchers, all wearing the same little green cap, the babies were taken care of in incubators after crossing the border.
A field hospital, the first of its kind since the start of the war, is to be set up in Khan Younes, to the south of the enclave.. Jordanian health workers have entered the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian medical officials. The Hamas government lists 31,000 injured in the Palestinian territory.
At least “12 patients and their relatives” were killed and “dozens of injured” in Israeli strike on Indonesian hospital, in the northern Gaza Strip, said Ashraf Al-Qidreh, spokesperson for the ministry in the Hamas-administered Gaza Strip. Around 200 patients were evacuated from this hospital, in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). There are still 400 patients remaining in the facility, he added.
The Israeli army said it continued to “expand its operations to new areas of the Gaza Strip”particularly in the Jabaliya sector, in the north of the territory.
Monday, the Médecins Sans Frontières clinic in Gaza City “was the target of a shot” And “Four MSF cars burned”, a fifth cut in two, indicated the NGO, without news from one of its members and their relatives. Artillery fire and airstrikes destroyed buildings in downtown Gaza, according to an AFP journalist. Doctors at Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza told AFP they had received ” tens “ dead and injured.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 41 members of the same family died in an Israeli attack that hit their house in Jabaliya. The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported the nighttime bombing of the Indonesian hospital, north of Gaza City, while Hamas reported shelling by Israeli tanks.