Israel-Hamas ceasefire ‘close’, brokered by the United States

Hamas abducted hundreds of Israelis and foreign nationals during its surprise attack on southern Israel last month. Those who remain – Israel believes there are still 239 hostages – are likely being held in the terrorist group’s network of underground tunnels.

According to The Washington Post, the looming ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, brokered by the United States, would require both sides to stop fighting for at least five days. An unknown number of hostages, likely women and children, would then be released in batches every 24 hours.

The newspaper cites “people familiar with the emerging” deal, as well as a six-page document detailing the proposed terms.

An anonymous Biden administration official said the US had been “working hard to advance” the potential ceasefire deal and progress had been made, but stressed that the situation in Gaza remains “volatile”.

Officially, a spokeswoman for the White House’s National Security Council, Adrienne Watson, said: “We have not reached a deal yet, but we continue to work hard to get to a deal.”

International discomfort with the mounting civilian death toll in the Gaza Strip, and repeated demands that Hamas release the hostages, have put mounting pressure on both sides to reach agreement on a temporary pause.

Gaza’s biggest hospital ‘a death zone’

As of yet, however, there is no ceasefire. Danger remains throughout Gaza, and according to the World Health Organisation, particularly at the Strip’s largest hospital, which it described as a “death zone”.

That assessment came after a visit to the hospital by WHO and other United Nations officials.

Elsewhere, a Hamas health official claimed more than 80 people were killed on Saturday in twin strikes on a northern Gaza refugee camp, including on a UN school which was sheltering displaced people.

Social media videos verified by AFP showed bodies covered in blood and dust on the floor of a building where mattresses had been wedged under school tables in Jabalia, which is the largest of Gaza’s refugee camps.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the UNRWA, described “horrifying images” from the incident, while Egypt called the bombing a “war crime” and “a deliberate insult to the United Nations”.

A separate strike Saturday on another building in Jabalia camp killed 32 people from the same family, 19 of them children, Hamas health authorities said.

Without mentioning the strikes, the Israeli army said “an incident in the Jabalia region” was under review.

The Israeli military’s relentless air and ground campaign has since killed 12,300 people, more than 5,000 of them children, according to the Hamas government, which has ruled Gaza since 2007.

The UN says some 1.6 million people have been displaced inside the Gaza Strip by the six weeks of fighting, and Israel said on Saturday its military was “expanding its operational activities in additional neighbourhoods”.

‘Extreme suffering’

Gaza’s largest hospital, al-Shifa, has been a key focus in recent days, with Israeli forces alleging Hamas uses it as a command centre – a claim denied by the group, and also by the hospital’s medical staff.

On Sunday, the WHO described a mass grave at the entrance and said nearly 300 patients were still inside, along with 25 health workers.

It said it was planning “the immediate evacuation of the remaining patients, staff and their families”, warning, however, that nearby facilities were already overstretched. The WHO urged an immediate ceasefire, given the “extreme suffering of the people of Gaza”.

On Saturday, hundreds of people fled the hospital on foot on orders from the Israeli army, according to the facility’s director.

Columns of sick and injured – some of them amputees – were seen leaving with displaced people, doctors and nurses, as loud explosions were heard around the complex.

At least 15 bodies, some in advanced stages of decomposition, were strewn along the route, lined with heavily damaged shops and overturned vehicles, an AFP journalist there said.

Non-government group Doctors Without Borders said a convoy carrying its staff and family members came under attack Saturday while evacuating from near al-Shifa, even though it had co-ordinated with both sides. One person was killed.

The WHO said 29 patients at the hospital with serious spinal injuries cannot move without medical assistance, and others have infected wounds due to lack of antibiotics.

There are also 32 babies in “extremely critical condition,” WHO said.

– with AFP