Israel “is prepared” for another truce in Gaza that allows the release of hostagesassured this Tuesday the president of the country, Isaac Herzog.
“Israel is prepared for another humanitarian pause and additional humanitarian aid to make possible the release of hostages”he stressed in a meeting with ambassadors based in Israel, according to the Presidency.
Nevertheless, Herzog pointed out that all responsibility for a new truce lies in the hands of the leaders of the Islamist group Hamas.
On aid for Gaza, which is suffering a serious humanitarian crisis due to the Israeli military offensive against Hamas, The president stated that it could be triple, up to 350 trucks a day instead of the approximately 100 that enter now, if they made “an effort” United Nations and the organizations it works with.
The president's statements in a meeting with diplomats come as information about possible negotiations increases for a new truce and arrive the day after Hamas released a video with three hostages, one of which wonders if they have forgotten about them.
The three kidnapped, men between 79 and 85 years old, are members of the Israeli kibbutz Nir Oz, that in a statement he warned that time is against him and his immediate release is urgently needed “through any means of potential negotiation.”
“Recent events sadly show that the situation of the hostages is deteriorating (…), particularly of the older ones,” stressed the kibbutz spokesman.
Before last November's truce to exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners in Israel, Hamas had released similar videos as a measure of pressure.
The head of Israel's Foreign Intelligence Service, Mossad, David Barnea, met on Monday in Warsaw with the director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Bill Burns; and the Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, after having met on Friday in Norway with the Qatari politician in the spirit of negotiating a new truce, according to Israeli media.
Of the more than 240 people that Hamas kidnapped on Israeli soil during the October 7 attackthere are still 129 hostages in Gaza, around twenty of whom are believed to be dead.
The truce of last November 24, with the medication of countries like Qatar, Egypt and the United States, For a week, it allowed the release of 105 hostages, 24 of them foreigners, in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinian prisoners.
After the Hamas attack on September 7 with more than 1,200 dead and more than 240 kidnapped, Israel declared a state of war and launched a military offensive by land, sea and air on the Palestinian enclave, with more than 19,600 dead and more than 52,500 injured according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, controlled by the Islamist group.
Hamas will not negotiate until the offensive stops
On the contrary, the Islamist group Hamas warned this Tuesday that it will not negotiate the release of hostages while Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip continues. “We affirm our position to categorically reject maintaining any form of negotiations on the exchange of prisoners as long as Israel's genocidal war continues,” he stressed in a statement.
“However, we are open to any initiative that contributes to ending the aggression against our people and opening the crossings to bring aid and relieve the Palestinians,” he added, referring to the entry of aid through the border crossings of the Strip.
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