[🇧🇩] Israel and Hamas war in Gaza-----Can Bangladesh be a peace broker?

[Saif]

32 killed in 48 hours in Gaza

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza yesterday said that 32 people were killed in the Palestinian territory over the past 48 hours, taking the overall death toll to 46,537.

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32 killed in 48 hours in Gaza

Photo: AFP

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza yesterday said that 32 people were killed in the Palestinian territory over the past 48 hours, taking the overall death toll to 46,537.

The ministry said at least 109,571 people have been wounded in more than 15 months of conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The ministry of health added 499 deaths to its death toll on Saturday, specifying they have now completed the data and confirmed identities on files whose information was incomplete.

A source in the ministry's data collection department told AFP that all the 499 additional deaths were from the past several months.

Meanwhile, Gaza's civil defence agency said an Israeli air strike on a school-turned-shelter yesterday killed eight people, including two children, while the Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants.

Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal confirmed eight people, including two children and two women, were killed by Israeli shelling on the Halwa school in the northern Gaza city of Jabalia.

The attack was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for more than 14 months.

The number of dead in Gaza has become a matter of bitter debate since Israel launched its military campaign against Hamas in response to the Palestinian militant group's unprecedented attack last year.

Israeli authorities have repeatedly questioned the credibility of the Gaza health ministry's figures.

But a study published Friday by British medical journal The Lancet estimated that the death toll in Gaza during the first nine months of the Israel-Hamas war was around 40 percent higher than recorded by the health ministry.

The new peer-reviewed study used data from the ministry, an online survey and social media obituaries, but only counted deaths from traumatic injuries. It did not include those from a lack of health care or food, or the thousands of missing believed to be buried under rubble.

The UN considers the Gaza health ministry's numbers to be reliable.​

 

[Saif]

Top Israeli security delegation in Doha for Gaza talks

A top-level Israeli security delegation arrived in Qatar yesterday for talks on a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, a spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, in a possible sign of so-far elusive agreements nearing.

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Top Israeli security delegation in Doha for Gaza talks

A child feeds another a spoonful of food as they sit atop graves at a cemetery where families displaced by conflict are taking shelter in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip yesterday. Photo: AFP

A top-level Israeli security delegation arrived in Qatar yesterday for talks on a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, a spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, in a possible sign of so-far elusive agreements nearing.

Qatar and fellow mediators Egypt and the United States are making renewed efforts to reach a deal to halt the fighting in the enclave and free the remaining 98 hostages held there before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20.

Netanyahu's office said on Saturday that the delegation includes Mossad Head David Barnea, the head of the Shin Bet domestic security service Ronen Bar and the military's head of the hostage brief, Nitzan Alon.

Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, met on Saturday with Netanyahu, after having met on Friday with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

Israeli and Palestinian officials have said since Thursday that some progress has been made in the indirect talks between Israel and militant group Hamas but did not elaborate. The sides have been keeping a tight lid on the details being worked out.

It is unclear how they will bridge one of the biggest gaps that has persisted throughout previous rounds of talks: Hamas demands an end to the war while Israel says it won't end the war as long as Hamas rules Gaza and poses a threat to Israelis.

Since October 7, 2023, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave laid to waste and gripped by a humanitarian crisis, and most of its population displaced.

On Saturday, the Palestinian civil emergency service said eight people were killed, including two women and two children, in an Israeli airstrike on a former school sheltering displaced families in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip. The Israeli military said the strike had targeted Hamas militants who were operating at the school and that it had taken measures to reduce the risk of harm to civilians.

Later on Saturday, the Gaza Civil Emergency Service said five people were killed and several others were wounded in two Israeli strikes. One of the two strikes killed three people in a house near the Daraj neighborhood in Gaza City.​

 

[Saif]

‘On the brink’ of Gaza truce: Biden

‘In the war between Israel and Hamas, we’re on the brink of a proposal that I laid out in detail months ago finally coming to fruition,’ Biden said in a farewell speech at the State Department...

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‘On the brink’ of Gaza truce: Biden
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem, Undefined 14 January, 2025, 03:45

The US president, Joe Biden, said on Monday that a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal between Hamas and Israel was ‘on the brink’ of being finalised, even as heavy fighting rocked the Palestinian territory.

Since early January, international mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States have intensified efforts to reach a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza, which would help facilitate the release of hostages still being held there.

‘In the war between Israel and Hamas, we’re on the brink of a proposal that I laid out in detail months ago finally coming to fruition,’ Biden said in a farewell speech at the State Department.

Earlier on Monday, White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan said that a truce deal could be finalised this week.

‘I’m not making a promise or prediction, but it is there for the taking and we are going to work to make it happen,"’Sullivan told reporters.

A source familiar with the negotiations in Doha told AFP there had been ‘significant progress on the remaining sticking points’ in the latest talks in Qatar.

This has led to a new ‘concrete’ proposal being presented to the parties, the source said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

‘Israel really wants to release the hostages and is working hard to secure a deal,’ Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar said at a press conference.

‘The current round of negotiations is the most serious and deep and has made significant progress,’ a Palestinian official close to Hamas told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, however, warned that he would oppose any deal that stopped the war.

‘The proposed agreement is a catastrophe for Israel’s national security,’ Smotrich said on X. ‘We will not be part of a surrender deal that involves releasing dangerous terrorists, halting the war, squandering the hard-won achievements paid for in blood and abandoning many hostages still in captivity.

‘Now is the time to intensify our efforts, using all available force to fully secure and cleanse the Gaza Strip,’ he added.

Smotrich, an outspoken member of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, has repeatedly opposed halting the war in Gaza.

His comments came amid rising calls by Israelis, particularly families of hostages held in Gaza, to reach an accord that would bring their loved ones home.

Smotrich’s remarks underline the sharp divides in Netanyahu’s ruling coalition over a deal.

But Netanyahu could nonetheless muster enough support to pass the deal through his cabinet, even without Smotrich.

Successive rounds of negotiations held in the past year repeatedly failed to produce a deal.

Among the key sticking points in the talks have been disagreements over the permanence of any ceasefire and the scale of humanitarian aid for the Palestinian territory.

Other points of contention include the return of displaced Gazans to their homes, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Palestinian territory and the reopening of border crossings.

Netanyahu has firmly rejected a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and remains opposed to any Palestinian governance of the territory.

The war in Gaza was sparked on October 7, 2023 when 1,210 people were killed on the Israeli side, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

On that day, Hamas also reportedly took 251 people hostage, 94 of whom are still allegedly being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has killed 46,584 people, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations says are reliable.

Even as intense diplomatic efforts continued towards a truce deal, Israeli forces pounded Gaza City on Monday, killing more than 50 Palestinians, according to civilian rescuers.

‘They bombed schools, homes and even gatherings of people,’ Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency, told AFP.

Eleven people were killed and several others injured when an Israeli strike targeted a house belonging to the Jaradah and Abu Khater families in the city’s Shujaiya neighbourhood, the agency said in a statement.

The remaining casualties occurred in other strikes across Gaza City throughout the day, it added.

The Israeli military said it was looking into those reports.

‘There is no room in hospitals to receive the wounded,’ Bassal said.

The Israeli military also suffered losses on Monday, with five of its soldiers killed in fighting in northern Gaza, the military said in a statement.

The latest deaths bring the Israeli military’s losses to 408 in the Gaza military campaign since it began a ground offensive against Hamas in the Palestinian territory on October 27, 2023.​

 

[Saif]

Final draft of Gaza truce deal presented after ‘breakthrough’

Mediators gave Israel and Hamas a final draft of a deal on Monday to end the war in Gaza, an official briefed on the negotiations said, after a midnight “breakthrough” in talks attended by envoys of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump. The official said the text for a ceasefire and release

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Final draft of Gaza truce deal presented after ‘breakthrough’
REUTERS
Published :
Jan 13, 2025 19:17
Updated :
Jan 13, 2025 19:17

Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City January 13, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Mediators gave Israel and Hamas a final draft of a deal on Monday to end the war in Gaza, an official briefed on the negotiations said, after a midnight “breakthrough” in talks attended by envoys of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

The official said the text for a ceasefire and release of hostages was presented by Qatar to both sides at talks in Doha, which included the chiefs of Israel’s Mossad and Shin Bet spy agencies and Qatar’s prime minister.

The official said Steve Witkoff, who will become US envoy when Trump returns to the US presidency next week, attended the talks. A US source said the outgoing Biden administration’s envoy Brett McGurk was also there.

“The next 24 hours will be pivotal to reaching the deal,” the official said, characterising the draft as the outcome of a breakthrough reached in the early hours of Monday.

Israel’s Kan radio, citing an Israeli official, reported on Monday that Israeli and Hamas delegations in Qatar had both received a draft, and that the Israeli delegation had briefed Israel’s leaders. Israel, Hamas and the foreign ministry of Qatar did not respond to requests for confirmation or comment.

Officials on both sides, while stopping short of confirming that a final draft had been reached, described progress at the talks.

A senior Israeli official said a deal could be sealed within a few days if Hamas replies to a proposal. A Palestinian official close to the talks said information from Doha was “very promising”, adding: “Gaps were being narrowed and there is a big push toward an agreement if all goes well to the end.”

The United States, Qatar and Egypt have worked for more than a year on talks to end the war in Gaza, so far fruitlessly.

HELL TO PAY

Both sides have agreed for months broadly on the principle of halting the fighting in return for the release of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian detainees held by Israel. However, Hamas has always insisted that the deal must lead to a permanent end to the war and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, while Israel has said it will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled.

Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration is now widely seen in the region as a de facto deadline. The president-elect has said there would be “hell to pay” unless hostages held by Hamas are freed before he takes office, while outgoing President Biden has also pushed hard for a deal before he leaves.

The official said talks went until the early hours of Monday, with Witkoff pushing the Israeli delegation in Doha and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani pushing Hamas officials to finalise an agreement.

The head of Egypt’s general intelligence agency Hassan Mahmoud Rashad was also in the Qatari capital as part of the talks, the official said.

Trump envoy Witkoff has travelled to Qatar and Israel several times since late November. He was in Doha on Friday and travelled to Israel to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday before returning to Doha.

Biden also spoke on Sunday by phone with Netanyahu, stressing “the immediate need for a ceasefire in Gaza and return of the hostages with a surge in humanitarian aid enabled by a stoppage in the fighting under the deal,” the White House said.

Israel launched its assault in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed across its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave laid to waste and most of its population displaced.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a hardline nationalist who has opposed previous attempts to reach a deal, denounced the latest proposals as a “surrender” and a “catastrophe for the national security of the state of Israel”.

Bloodshed continued in Gaza on Monday, with Israeli military strikes killing at least 21 people, medics said, including five killed in an Israeli strike at a Gaza City school sheltering displaced families.

For the last several months, fighting has been particularly intense along the northern edge of Gaza, where Israel says it is trying to prevent Hamas from regrouping and Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to permanently depopulate a buffer zone.

Hamas armed wing spokesman Abu Ubaida said the group’s fighters attacked Israeli forces in the area killing at least 10 soldiers and injuring dozens of others in the past 72 hours. Israel confirmed on Saturday that four soldiers had been killed.​

 

[Saif]

Qatar says Gaza truce talks in ‘final stages’

Key mediator Qatar said negotiations for a Gaza truce and hostage release deal were in their ‘final stages’ on Tuesday, adding that it was hopeful an agreement could be reached ‘very soon’.

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Qatar says Gaza truce talks in ‘final stages’
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem 15 January, 2025, 01:07

A man climbs out of rubble and fallen building remains after attempting to search for survivors and bodies of victims at a site that was hit by Israeli bombardment east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday amid the on-going war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. | AFP photo

Key mediator Qatar said negotiations for a Gaza truce and hostage release deal were in their ‘final stages’ on Tuesday, adding that it was hopeful an agreement could be reached ‘very soon’.

Qatar, Egypt and the United States have stepped up efforts to broker a ceasefire to enable the release of hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

On Monday, US president Joe Biden said a deal was ‘on the brink’ of being finalised, just days before the inauguration of his successor, Donald Trump.

On Tuesday, Qatar foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said negotiations were in their ‘final stages’.

‘We do believe that we are at the final stages certainly we are hopeful that this would lead very soon to an agreement,’ Ansari said, adding ‘until there is an announcement we shouldn’t be over-excited about what’s happening right now’.

‘We have reached a point where the major issues that were preventing a deal from happening were addressed,’ he told a news conference.

Hamas’s October 7 attack, the deadliest in Israel’s history, resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

On that day, militants also took 251 people hostage, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 46,645 people, a majority of them civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures that the UN considers reliable.

The health ministry in Gaza said 61 people were killed in the Palestinian territory over the past 24 hours.

A source briefed on the Doha negotiations said earlier the heads of Israel’s intelligence agencies, the Middle East envoys for the incoming and outgoing US administrations and Qatar’s prime minister had been due at the talks.

‘Mediators will hold separate talks with Hamas,’ the source said.

Qatar said later the talks were being held at the ‘highest level’.

Sources close to the talks and Israeli media said the first phase of a deal would see 33 Israeli hostages released, while two Palestinian sources close to Hamas said that Israel would release about 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange.

An Israeli government official said that ‘several hundred terrorists will be released’ as part of the first phase of the deal.

Israeli media also reported on Tuesday that under the proposed deal, Israel would be allowed to maintain a buffer zone inside Gaza during the implementation of the first phase.

Successive rounds of negotiations had failed to end the deadliest war in Gaza’s history.

On Monday, White House National Security advisor Jake Sullivan said a truce deal could be finalised this week.

‘I’m not making a promise or prediction, but it is there for the taking and we are going to work to make it happen,’ he said.

Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, however, warned on Monday he would oppose any deal that stopped the war.

‘The proposed agreement is a catastrophe for Israel’s national security,’ Smotrich said on X.

An outspoken member of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, Smotrich has repeatedly opposed halting the war in Gaza.

His comments came amid rising calls by Israelis, particularly families of hostages held in Gaza, to reach an accord that would bring their loved ones home.

Among the key sticking points in the talks have been disagreements over the permanence of any ceasefire and the scale of humanitarian aid for the Palestinian territory.

Other points of contention include the return of displaced Gazans to their homes, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Palestinian territory and the reopening of border crossings.

Netanyahu has firmly rejected a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and has opposed any Palestinian governance of the territory.

Even as intense diplomatic efforts continued towards a truce deal, Israeli forces pounded targets across Gaza.

The territory’s civil defence agency said overnight air strikes and shelling killed at least 18 people in Gaza City in the north, the central area of Deir el-Balah and Khan Yunis in the south.

‘Last night was harsh and bloody,’ spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.

The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants.

‘Overnight, with the direction of IDF (army) intelligence, the IAF (air force) conducted several strikes on Hamas terrorists who were involved in terror activities,’ it said.​