The fragile ceasefire in Gaza is being extended as Israel comes under pressure to spare civilians if fighting resumes
The sides agreed to extend their ceasefire through Wednesday, with two more planned exchanges of hostages held by militants for Palestinians jailed by Israel.
Tel Aviv, Israel: A fragile truce between Israel and Hamas entered its fifth day on Tuesday, with the militant group vowing to release more hostages to delay the expected resumption of war and Israel coming under increasing pressure to spare Palestinian civilians when it resumes its offensive. For the first time since the ceasefire began, Israel and Hamas exchanged accusations of a serious violation. The Israeli army said three explosive devices were detonated near its forces at two locations in northern Gaza, and militants at one location opened fire on the troops, who returned fire. It said its forces were in positions in accordance with the terms of the ceasefire.
Hamas in turn accused Israel of committing a “flagrant ceasefire violation,” prompting retaliation by its fighters, without providing details. It said in a statement that it was “still committed to the ceasefire as long as the enemy adheres to it,” and urged mediators to intervene.
It was not immediately clear whether the exchange posed a threat to the ceasefire. But it underscored the fragility of the ceasefire in northern Gaza, where Israeli forces and Hamas fighters are maintaining positions close to each other and preparing for a possible resumption of fighting when the ceasefire ends.
The sides agreed to extend their ceasefire through Wednesday, with two more planned exchanges of hostages held by militants for Palestinians jailed by Israel. But Israel has vowed to resume the war with “full force” to destroy Hamas once it is clear that no more hostages will be released under the deal.
The Biden administration has told Israel it must avoid “significant further displacement” and mass casualties among Palestinian civilians if it resumes the offensive, and that it must operate more carefully in southern Gaza than in the north, US officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity under basic White House rules.
CIA Director William Burns and David Barnea, head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, were in Qatar, a key mediator with Hamas, to discuss extending the ceasefire and releasing more hostages, a diplomat said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. talk. A U.S. official confirmed Burns was in Qatar, speaking on condition of anonymity because the director’s travel plans are not made public for security reasons.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit the region this week, also with a view to extending the ceasefire.
Hamas and other militants are still holding about 160 people, out of 240 captured in their Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that ignited the war. That is enough to potentially extend the ceasefire for another two weeks under the existing Qatar-Egypt-US framework, but Hamas is expected to make much higher demands for the release of captured soldiers.
Israel has vowed to end Hamas’ 16-year rule in Gaza and destroy its military capabilities. That would almost certainly require expanding the ground offensive from northern Gaza — where entire residential neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble — to the south, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people have crammed into crowded United Nations shelters.
Israel blames Hamas for the rising number of casualties and accuses the militants of using civilians as human shields as they operate in densely populated residential areas.
HOSTAGES AND PRISONERS RELEASED
Monday’s release brought to 50 the number of Israelis released under the terms of the initial four-day truce. Separate negotiations saw the release of another 19 hostages, including 17 Thais, one Filipino and one Russian-Israeli. So far, 150 Palestinians have been released from Israeli prisons. Israel has said it will extend the ceasefire by one day for every 10 additional hostages released.
The Palestinian prisoners released so far are mainly teenagers accused of throwing rocks and firebombs during clashes with Israeli forces. Some were convicted in Israeli courts of attempting to carry out deadly attacks. The prisoners are widely seen by Palestinians as heroes who resisted the occupation.
Most of the released hostages appeared physically fine, but an 84-year-old woman released on Sunday was hospitalized in critical condition after not having had access to her medications while in captivity. They have largely remained out of the public eye, but details about their captivity are beginning to emerge.
In one of the first interviews with a released hostage, 78-year-old Ruti Munder told Israeli television channel Channel 13 that she was initially well fed in captivity, but conditions deteriorated as shortages arose. She said she was kept in a “suffocating” room and slept on plastic chairs with a sheet for almost 50 days.
Israel besieged Gaza at the start of the war and had allowed only a trickle of humanitarian aid prior to the ceasefire, leading to widespread shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel for power generators amid an area-wide conflict. Power failure.
NORTHERN GAZA IN RUINS
The ceasefire has allowed residents remaining in Gaza City and other parts of the north to venture out to inspect the destruction and locate and bury relatives. Images from northern Gaza, the focus of Israel’s ground offensive, show almost every building damaged or destroyed.
A UN-led aid consortium estimates that more than 234,000 homes in Gaza have been damaged and 46,000 completely destroyed, representing about 60% of the housing stock in the territory, which is home to some 2.3 million Palestinians. In the north, the destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure “seriously endangers the ability to meet basic needs to sustain life,” the report said.
More than 13,300 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, roughly two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which makes no distinction between civilians and fighters. More than 1,200 people were killed on the Israeli side, mostly civilians killed in the first attack.
At least 77 soldiers have been killed in the Israeli ground offensive. Israel says it has killed thousands of militants, without providing evidence.
FEAR OF THE SOUTH
The bombardment and Israel’s ground offensive have displaced more than 1.8 million people, nearly 80% of Gaza’s population, according to the UN Humanitarian Affairs Office. Most have sought refuge in the south. Israeli forces have banned people from returning to the north during the ceasefire.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been crammed into UN-run schools and other facilities, and many have been forced to sleep outside on the streets because of overcrowding. It is unclear where they will go if Israel expands its ground operation, as Egypt has refused to accept refugees and Israel has closed its border.
The UN says the ceasefire has made it possible to scale up deliveries of food, water and medicine to the largest volume since the war began, and to bring in much-needed fuel for homes, hospitals and water treatment plants. But the 160 to 200 trucks a day are still less than half of what Gaza imported before the fighting, even as humanitarian needs have soared.
Four days after the ceasefire, residents were still waiting for hours to buy gas and cooking fuel.
Juliette Toma, spokesperson for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, said people are coming to shelters asking for heavy clothing, mattresses and blankets, and some are sleeping in damaged vehicles.
“The needs are overwhelming,” she told The Associated Press. “They’ve lost everything and they need everything.”
(Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller in Washington, Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed to this report.)