Officials and diplomats are negotiating a days-long ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for the release of hostages, including children, women, elderly and sick people, the Guardian understands.
The discussions include the possibility of a one- to three-day ceasefire, although nothing has been agreed, sources with knowledge of the negotiations have said.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has repeatedly said there will be no ceasefire in Gaza until hostages – of which there are believed to be more than 240 – are released. Hamas says hostages will not be released until a ceasefire is agreed.
Netanyahu said on Wednesday night: “I want to put to the side all sorts of idle rumours that we are hearing from all sorts of directions, and repeat one clear thing: there will be no ceasefire without the release of our hostages.”
Qatar has been mediating between Israel and Hamas.
Speaking at the start of the humanitarian conference on Gaza in Paris, UN aid chief, Martin Griffiths, said the world body must not help push Palestinians out of their homes.
Israel has told Palestinians in the heavily populated north of Gaza to move to the south, as its ground forces move in.
“The United Nations cannot be part of unilateral proposal to push Palestinians into so-called safe zones,” Griffiths said.
Speaking at the same conference, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) chief, Isabelle Defourny, called southern Gaza safe zones “fake zones”, and said about 30% of those killed in Gaza were in the south.
The United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, on Wednesday called out Israel for what he said was the “unlawful forcible evacuation of civilians”.
Emmanuel Macron said that there must be a “humanitarian pause” very quickly in Gaza and that there must be a push towards a ceasefire.
“In the immediate term, we need to work on protecting civilians. To do that, we need a humanitarian pause very quickly and we must work towards a ceasefire,” Macron said in a speech in Paris.
“Civilians must be protected, that’s indispensable and non-negotiable and is an immediate necessity,” he added.
Israel’s allies have avoided calls for a ceasefire but instead called for “humanitarian pauses” to allow aid in. Macron’s comments appear to go further.
France is hosting an international humanitarian conference on Gaza today, with the aim of helping the civilian population, although expectations are low of breakthrough.
Belgium’s deputy prime minister has called on the Belgian government to adopt sanctions against Israel and investigate the bombings of hospitals and refugee camps in Gaza.
“It is time for sanctions against Israel. The rain of bombs is inhumane,” Petra De Sutter told Nieuwsblad newspaper. “It is clear that Israel does not care about the international demands for a ceasefire.”
De Sutter said the European Union should immediately suspend its association agreement with Israel, which aims at better economic and political cooperation.
She said an import ban on products from occupied Palestinian territories should be implemented and violent settlers, politicians and soldiers responsible for war crimes should be banned from entering the EU.
At the same time, she said, Belgium should increase funding for the international criminal court in The Hague to investigate the bombings while cutting money flows to Hamas.
“This is a terrorist organisation. Terror costs money and there must be sanctions on the companies and people who provide Hamas with money,” De Sutter said.
Officials and diplomats are negotiating a days-long ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for the release of hostages, including children, women, elderly and sick people, the Guardian understands.
The discussions include the possibility of a one- to three-day ceasefire, although nothing has been agreed, sources with knowledge of the negotiations have said.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has repeatedly said there will be no ceasefire in Gaza until hostages – of which there are believed to be more than 240 – are released. Hamas says hostages will not be released until a ceasefire is agreed.
Netanyahu said on Wednesday night: “I want to put to the side all sorts of idle rumours that we are hearing from all sorts of directions, and repeat one clear thing: there will be no ceasefire without the release of our hostages.”
Qatar has been mediating between Israel and Hamas.
The Israeli military says the road out of Gaza City is open again today for people in the north to flee to the south. It is open until 4pm local time (2pm GMT).
Israel has continued to bomb residential areas in northern and southern Gaza. However, its troops have encircled Gaza City, in the north, and are preparing to enter. Aid workers have said many people – including the sick and wounded, as well as premature babies – cannot leave Gaza City.
“The northern Gaza Strip area is considered a fierce combat zone and time is running out to evacuate it,” the IDF said in an Arabic-language post.
Rocket sirens have been heard in the Israeli coastal city of Ashdod, north of Gaza.
Palestinian militants have reduced the number of rocket attacks against Israel since the first days of the war, although they continue to fire them at civilian areas. Many are intercepted by air defence systems.
A report by my colleague, Kaamil Ahmed, on a swimming teacher in Gaza and the fate of the thousands he taught to swim:
The 11,000 children who learned to swim in the pools Amjed Tantesh built on Gaza’s beaches remain on his mind, and occasionally, to his dismay, make it on to his Facebook timeline.
Displaced from his home in northern Gaza, Tantesh only occasionally has access to the internet. But when he does, he inevitably hears of the deaths of friends, neighbours and former students, and posts tributes to them.
His swimming school has survived previous wars, driven by his ambition to ensure Gaza’s children can safely swim in its seas, but now he dreads the news that another of those children has been killed or injured.
Tantesh has coached in Gaza since 1999 when he won a local swimming championship. While he initially dreamed of producing an Olympic competitor – a dream he has not yet been able to fulfil – his concern for the safety of the territory’s children was a key driver. In 2014, several children who lived nearby drowned in the Mediterranean, spurring him to step up the coaching.
Rocket sirens have sounded in Israeli communities on the Gaza frontier.
The communities have been largely evacuated since the war began and the Israeli army has set up a closed military zone.
Here are some of the latest photographs from inside Gaza:
Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo said on Thursday he would convey to President Joe Biden in their meeting on Monday that the Middle East conflict should be stopped.
Jokowi, as the Indonesian leader is popularly known, is to fly to Riyadh for an international summit about the war on Friday.
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMifGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZWd1YXJkaWFuLmNvbS93b3JsZC9saXZlLzIwMjMvbm92LzA5L2lzcmFlbC1oYW1hcy13YXItbGl2ZS11cGRhdGVzLXdoby1kaXNlYXNlLWdhemEtdXMtc3RyaWtlcy1pcmFuLXNpdGUtc3lyaWHSAQA?oc=5
2023-11-09 09:15:47Z
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