The glimpse of peace that Gaza has recovered in the last six days has not only not brought peace to the West Bank, but has coincided with an even greater upsurge in violence in that occupied Palestinian territory, where some of its inhabitants denounce a war that does not exist. bears that name.
While Hamas was open this Wednesday to the possibility of extending the truce in the Strip for another four days, which expires this Thursday at 7:00 a.m. (one hour less in Spanish peninsular time), in the West Bank about thirty Palestinians were detained this Wednesday. early morning in Ramallah, Jericho, Nablus and Jenin, Abdallah Zgari, president of the NGO Palestinian Prisoners Club, explained to this newspaper. That number exceeds that of the prisoners from the West Bank and East Jerusalem freed on Tuesday thanks to the exchange for hostages in Gaza that accompanies the truce. In Jenin, the Israeli army carried out a large military incursion that lasted more than 16 hours.
The city has been declared a “closed military zone” and the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has reported the death of two children in that military operation: Adam Saber al Ghouk, eight years old — according to other sources he could be nine or even 12— and Basil Suleiman Abu al-Wafa, 15. A video broadcast by Palestinian media and social media users shows recordings from the Jenin camp cameras in which the first of them is seen being shot by a sniper
While the last and umpteenth military incursion in Jenin has just ended, from Gaza, a Hamas source cited by Agence France Presse has assured that the Palestinian fundamentalist movement “agrees” to extend the truce for four more days. This indicates, not only that the armed group is managing to locate some more of the 161 hostages that, according to the Israeli Government, are still in Gaza, but that Israel and Hamas could also begin to exchange adult men, soldiers or even propose the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the return of Israeli bodies held by Palestinian militias. So far, among the 66 released Israeli hostages there is only one adult man: a man with dual Israeli and Russian nationality. The rest are women and minors, in addition to the 20 Asian workers released in the Palestinian enclave outside the framework of the agreement between Israel and Hamas. For its part, Israel has released 180 Palestinians, including women and children, since last Friday.
Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits.
Subscribe
In that same period, a very similar number of Palestinians have been detained by Israel: 168, according to Abdallah Zgari. The president of the Palestinian Prisoners Club denounces that the Israeli authorities also continue to arrest minors, such as the 12-year-old boy who, he claims, was detained on Tuesday night in Ramallah, the capital of the West Bank.
The Egyptian newspaper Al Arabi Al Yadid reported this Wednesday that Hamas and Israel – with the mediation of Qatar, Egypt and the United States – have reached an agreement to extend the truce for at least two days, although neither side has officially confirmed it, beyond the statements of the source close to Hamas cited by France Presse. According to that Egyptian newspaper, which cites official sources, the temporary cessation of fighting would be extended with conditions very similar to those that have been in force since the beginning of the truce on Friday, that is, the cessation of bombing in exchange for the delivery each day of 10 hostages in the hands of the Palestinian militias to Israel, which, for its part, would continue to release Palestinian prisoners and allow the entry of 200 trucks with humanitarian aid to the Strip each day. That amount is “insufficient,” the United Nations recalled again on Tuesday night. Before the war, about 500 heavy vehicles entered Gaza each day carrying humanitarian aid and goods.
Israeli officials cited by the newspaper Haaretz have confirmed that this proposal to extend the temporary ceasefire for two days is being analyzed by the Israeli Government, which has not yet signed it. Consistent with the official discourse, the officials cited by the newspaper maintained that Israel does not in any case consider extending the pause in the war beyond Sunday, a short period that the mediators between that country and Hamas aspire to extend, especially Qatar. and Egypt, which have reiterated that their objective is to make this truce a definitive ceasefire.
The head of the United States intelligence services, William Burns – director of the CIA – met again this Wednesday in Doha with David Barnea, head of the Israeli Mossad, to analyze the new phase of the truce, according to a cited source. by Reuters. The United States is trying to understand what conditions Israel sets for this new extension and whether there is a possibility that it could be extended a little more than the two days that were added to the four days of cessation of fighting initially agreed upon. At a press conference in Brussels, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that “for the next two days”, his country will focus on “doing everything possible to prolong the pause, so that we continue to get more hostages and delivering more humanitarian aid [a Gaza]”.
Among these new conditions, the possibility of beginning to exchange adult male hostages and soldiers of both sexes is precisely discussed. This issue seems indispensable for a somewhat more lasting peace, given that a good number of civilian women and children held captive – 65 – in the hands of the Palestinian militias have already been freed and that Israel conditions the cessation of fighting on each day being handed over 10 new hostages. The spokesman for the Israeli Government, Eylon Levy, this Wednesday named 161 people kidnapped in Gaza, of whom 141 are Israelis and the rest are foreigners.
In the press conference in which he offered this information, the spokesperson assured that his country will continue to “increase military pressure so that Hamas releases more hostages in Gaza.” He thus reaffirmed the official Israeli argument that ignores the danger that the bombings in the Strip also represent for the kidnapped people, which have already killed at least 15,000 people, according to Gazan health authorities. The Ezedín al Qasam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, have assured this Wednesday that three Israeli hostages of the Argentine-Israeli Bibas family have died in the bombings: the 10-month-old baby Kfir Bibas, his older brother, Ariel, four, and their mother, Shiri. An official Israeli statement has responded by attributing “entire responsibility for the safety of the hostages” to Hamas. The military spokesman, Daniel Hagari, later cast doubt on the announcement by the armed wing of Hamas.
The Israeli narrative claims that continuing the war will lead Hamas to release more kidnapped people. The official Israeli argument also describes this truce as “an operational pause” that will allow better preparation for the next phases of a conflict that Benjamin Netanyahu’s Government can hardly renounce.
The prime minister faces, on the one hand, pressure to honor his promise to “end Hamas,” a goal that is difficult to achieve given the dual military and political nature of the religious-nationalist movement, the implementation of its social and charitable infrastructure. and the impossibility of destroying an ideology with cannon fire. Beyond that promise, Netanyahu faces the bellicosity of the most far-right wing of his government. One of his representatives, the Minister of National Security, the far-right Itamar Ben Gvir, warned his partner in X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday that stopping the war is equivalent to breaking the coalition that allows the prime minister to govern.
Closed military zone
The guns have fallen silent for the moment in Gaza but not in the West Bank, where its inhabitants have lived since October 7 – the day of the Hamas attack against Israel in which 1,200 people died – in a constant escalation. Especially in some of the towns considered by Israel to be fiefdoms of the Palestinian resistance, such as Jenin, in the northern West Bank, with about 50,000 inhabitants. Of them, between 11,000 and 14,000, according to various Palestinian sources, live in a refugee camp whose surface area does not even cover half a square kilometer.
On Tuesday afternoon, a large number of Israeli military vehicles once again entered the city and the countryside, while snipers were stationed on the roofs and drones flew over the buildings, health sources who requested anonymity explained to this newspaper. Luz Saavedra, coordinator of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Jenin, the only international organization that works permanently in the refugee camp and in the city, later confirmed to EL PAÍS in an audio note that the Israeli military blocked the entrance to the largest public hospital in the city, Jalil Suleimán, “with military vehicles and snipers” that prevented the wounded from accessing the center’s emergencies, to which MSF offers support.
“On this occasion, we even saw assault troops near the emergency entrance within the hospital premises,” a fact of “significant severity” that had not been seen “in previous incursions,” Saavedra denounced. MSF claims to be unable to give figures for deaths or injuries at the moment.
“Since October 7,” Dr. Wisam Bakr, director of the Jalil Suleiman hospital, explained to this newspaper in Jenin, hours before the incursion, the Israeli soldiers “do not follow any rules.” Not only do they “prevent the wounded and patients from accessing medical care” during their raids, but they “stop the ambulances, search them and take the wounded into custody,” Bakr said. The snipers shoot directly at the hospital, says this doctor. The windows of the center stairs are riddled with enormous bullet holes, apparently of large caliber given their diameter. Attacking hospitals, ambulances and detaining wounded people, even if they are combatants – as long as they no longer represent a danger – can constitute a war crime.
Follow all the international information on Facebook and xor in our weekly newsletter.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_
#Israel #intensifies #attacks #West #Bank #negotiating #extension #truce #Gaza