Qatar, Egypt and the US are reportedly mediating a deal under which Israel will agree to a three-day ceasefire in the fighting in Gaza in return for Hamas releasing 10-15 hostages, including American nationals.
US president Joe Biden confirmed that he asked Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday to agree to pause the fighting to facilitate a possible release of hostages. With its troops advancing towards the centre of Gaza city, Israel is reluctant to halt its military momentum on the ground and wanted a much bigger hostage release. However, the feeling is that Israel will be forced to accept the emerging deal, if it comes to fruition, despite declarations by Israeli leaders that a ceasefire is not under discussion.
Israel believes 239 people were seized and taken into Gaza on October 7th, when some 3,000 militants crossed the border and killed about 1,400 people, mostly civilians. The vast majority of those taken were alive but Hamas also took some dead bodies. Hamas claims about 60 of the hostages have been killed in Israeli strikes.
Israeli officials believe that Hamas holds roughly 180 hostages, Islamic Jihad holds about 40 hostages and another 20 are being held by extended crime families, mainly in the southern Gaza Strip.
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One of the hostages is believed to be eight-year-old Emily Hand, an Israeli-Irish national, who was seized from kibbutz Be’eri and was initially classified as one of the 1,400 people killed inside Israel. She is one of 31 children being held in captivity, including a nine-month-old baby.
Although Washington supports a pause in the fighting to facilitate a hostage release, it still opposes a general ceasefire.
“Those calling for an immediate ceasefire have an obligation to explain how to address the unacceptable result it would likely bring about: Hamas left in place, with more than 200 hostages, with the capacity and stated intent to repeat October 7th again and again and again,” US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.
The fighting continued on Wednesday, day 33 of the war. The Hamas-controlled health ministry reported more than 10,570 Palestinians have been killed, some 40 per cent of them children.
Israel estimates that about 2,000 Hamas fighters have been killed since the start of the ground invasion on October 28th and 130 entrance shafts to the vast Hamas tunnel network have been destroyed. There has been a significant decline in militant rocket fire towards Israel over the last few days.
Hamas is denying Israeli claims of military success. “I challenge Israel if it has been able, to this moment, to record any military achievement on the ground other than killing civilians,” senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad said. “Gaza is unbreakable and will remain a thorn in the throat of the Americans and the Zionists.”
Some 50,000 residents on Wednesday again made use of a humanitarian corridor opened by Israel to leave the northern Gaza Strip, heeding Israel’s warning to head south where there are fewer air strikes. Despite the exodus, it’s still estimated that more than 100,000 Palestinian civilians remain in the combat area, many sheltering inside hospitals or UN schools.
Top diplomats from the G7 leading industrial democracies announced a unified stance on the Israel-Hamas war after intensive meetings in Tokyo, condemning Hamas, supporting Israel’s right to self-defence and calling for “humanitarian pauses” to speed aid to Palestinian civilians.
Israel’s justice ministry and police have appointed a special team to prosecute captured gunmen accused of participating in acts of torture, mutilation, rape and burning people alive. Also under consideration is the holding of public trials, similar to the 1961 trial in Jerusalem of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.
