Gaza: Hamas will ‘study’ counter-offer to Israeli truce

Is this real progress or just another series of discussions doomed to fail? While an Egyptian delegation arrived in Israel on Friday to discuss a “comprehensive ceasefire framework” in the Gaza Strip, according to Egyptian media close to the intelligence agency Al-Qahera News, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas announced this Saturday it would “study” Israeli counteraction -a proposal for a truce in the fighting in the Gaza Strip, related to the release of hostages.

“Today Hamas received the official response of the Zionist occupation (the name given to Israel, editor’s note) to our position, which was expressed to the Egyptian and Qatari mediators on April 13,” said Number 2 of Hamas’s Gaza policy department. Khalil al-Hayya added: “The movement will study this proposal and submit its response once its study is completed.”

In that April 13 press release, Hamas insisted on a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the withdrawal of the Israeli army “from the entire Gaza Strip,” “the return of displaced persons to their areas and places of residence, and an intensification of the flow of humanitarian aid.”

Except that Israel opposes a permanent ceasefire. Instead, the country is betting on a pause in hostilities for a few weeks to then carry out, for example, a ground operation in Rafah, and refuses to withdraw from all territory.

If the details of this Israeli counter-offer have not filtered out, the local press mentions the possible release of the original 20 hostages, which were considered “humanitarian matters.”

Meeting of Arab and European diplomats

Meanwhile, the war in Gaza will be the focus of meetings with senior Arab and European diplomats expected this weekend in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, including the heads of diplomacy of Germany and France. After six-and-a-half months of aerial bombardment, artillery fire and ground fighting, the war has devastated the Gaza Strip, where the UN estimates there is 37 million tons of debris and rubble to be cleared. As early as Thursday, leaders of 18 countries, including the US, France, UK and Brazil, called on Hamas on Thursday to “immediately release all hostages.” “The agreement on the table for the release of the hostages will allow for an immediate and lasting ceasefire in the Gaza Strip,” the text continues.

On the ground, Palestinians reported Israeli strikes overnight Friday and Saturday near Rafah, where Israel maintains its ambitions to launch a ground offensive despite international concerns. Indeed, many capitals and humanitarian organizations fear a bloodbath in the city, where 1.5 million Palestinians are huddled together, many in tent camps, without water or electricity.

The conflict has also spread to the border between Israel and Lebanon, where there are daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Lebanese Hezbollah, or even in Yemen, where Houthi rebels are targeting some of the shipping traffic in the Red Sea in support of Gaza. On Friday, Israel announced that an Israeli civilian working at a construction site was killed near the border by rockets fired from southern Lebanon. “At night, terrorists fired anti-tank missiles” at a disputed area on the border between Lebanon and the Syrian Golan Heights, annexed by Israel. Hezbollah claims it staged a “sophisticated ambush” against the Israeli convoy and “destroyed two vehicles.”

In the evening, the Lebanese Islamist group Jamaah Islamiyah, close to Hamas, announced the death of two of its leaders as a result of an Israeli strike in Lebanon. The Israeli army previously said it had killed one of the group’s leaders, Mosab Khalaf, whom it accused of “preparing a large number of terrorist attacks against Israel.”

In Yemen, Houthi rebels claimed responsibility overnight Friday for attacks that damaged the Andromeda Star ship in the Red Sea, according to the US military Middle East Command (Centcom).