DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — A high-level meeting between Israeli Cabinet members and a delegation recently returned from Paris is anticipated to take place on Saturday. The delegation had been in talks with representatives from the United States, Egypt, and Qatar, aiming to broker a deal to halt the ongoing conflict in Gaza, according to an Israeli official.
The official, who chose to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the topic, suggested that Hamas, the militant group in control of Gaza, had shown some flexibility on certain demands, although no specifics were provided.
An Egyptian senior official, who is part of the mediation team between Israel and Hamas along with Qatar, revealed that the draft deal presented to the Israeli delegation proposed the release of up to 40 women and elderly hostages from Gaza. In exchange, Israel would release up to 300 Palestinian prisoners, primarily women, minors, and the elderly.
The official further explained that the proposed six-week ceasefire would allow hundreds of aid trucks to enter Gaza daily, including the northern half of the besieged territory. Both parties have agreed to continue negotiations during this pause, aiming for further releases and a permanent ceasefire. The official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, mentioned that mediators are awaiting Israel’s official response.
The negotiators are working against an unofficial deadline, which is the commencement of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, expected to start around March 10.
Osama Hamdan, a political official from Hamas, stated in Beirut on Friday that while the group was not present at the talks, Israel had rejected its main demands. These included halting the “aggression” and withdrawing from the Gaza Strip.
The Health Ministry in Gaza reported on Saturday that hospitals had received the bodies of 92 Palestinians killed in Israeli bombardments over the past 24 hours. This brings the total death toll in nearly five months of war to 29,606, with the number of wounded nearing 70,000.
The ministry’s death toll does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but it has stated that two-thirds of those killed were children and women. Israel, on the other hand, claims its troops have killed more than 10,000 Hamas fighters, but has not provided further details.
An Israeli airstrike targeted a house in Rafah, the southernmost city of Gaza, killing at least eight people, including four women and a child, according to health authorities. An Associated Press journalist witnessed the bodies at Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital.
“Enough, enough. Either the Israelis or us should stop. There should be a truce,” pleaded Abdul-Qader Shubeir, a neighbor who was unable to immediately extinguish the fire consuming the bodies.
Brazil’s president, on Saturday, accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians. This follows his controversial comparison last week of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza to the Nazi Holocaust, which resulted in the death of 6 million Jews and others during World War II.
Israel has vehemently denied these genocide claims, both at the U.N.’s top court and elsewhere, stating that its war is against the militant group Hamas, not the Palestinian people. It holds Hamas accountable for civilian deaths, arguing that the group operates from civilian areas.
“What the Israeli government is doing is not war, it is genocide,” Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wrote on X, formerly Twitter. ”Children and women are being murdered.”
In response to Lula’s initial comments, Israel declared him a persona non grata, summoned Brazil’s ambassador, and demanded an apology. Lula responded by recalling Brazil’s ambassador to Israel for consultations.
Last month, South Africa filed a landmark case with the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians. The court issued a preliminary order instructing Israel to do everything in its power to prevent death, destruction, and any acts of genocide in Gaza.
Israel, which was partly established as a refuge for Holocaust survivors, accused South Africa of hypocrisy. South Africa has compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in Gaza to the treatment of Black South Africans during apartheid, framing the issues as fundamentally about people oppressed in their homeland.
Israel declared war following the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed about 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages. More than 100 hostages remain in captivity in Gaza.
The escalating civilian death toll and worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza have led to increased calls for a ceasefire. Hunger and infectious diseases are spreading, and about 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced, with about 1.4 million crowded into Rafah on the border with Egypt.
“There are choking, skyrocketing prices. It’s terrifying. There is no source of income. The area is very overcrowded,” said Hassan Attwa, a displaced man from Gaza City who now shelters in a tent on the sand in Mawasi in the south. “The garbage, may God bless you, is not collected at all. It stays piled up. It turns into a mess and clay when it rains. The situation is disastrous in every sense of the word.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to fight until “total victory,” but is facing domestic pressure to secure the release of the remaining hostages.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu and his conservative government have drawn the ire of the United States, its closest ally, over plans to build more than 3,300 new homes in settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Netanyahu’s outspoken finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, stated that the plans were a response to a Palestinian shooting attack earlier in the week that killed one Israeli and wounded five.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his disappointment on Friday upon hearing of the Israeli announcement. He described the new settlements as “counterproductive to reaching an enduring peace” and “inconsistent with international law.”
The Biden administration also reinstated a U.S. legal finding dating back nearly 50 years that Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are “illegitimate” under international law.
Bad punctuation and grammar, disagree. ceasefire bad idea, need to continue attacks.
Bad punctuation and grammar, disagree. Ceasefire would only give the enemy time to regroup.
Disagree ceasefire, keep up offensive efforts.