Gaza war in its twelfth month, hopes for ceasefire slim

Gaza war in its twelfth month, hopes for ceasefire slim

GAZA, September 7, 2024 (BSS/AFP) – The war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip entered its twelfth month on Saturday, with little sign of a relaxation in the Palestinian territories or hope for the Israeli hostages still held captive.

The chances of a ceasefire, which would also include the release of Hamas hostages in exchange for Israeli prisoners, appear slim, as both sides stubbornly insist on their positions.

Hamas, whose October 7 attack on Israel sparked the war, is demanding a full Israeli withdrawal, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists that troops must remain on a key strip of land along the Gaza-Egypt border.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt are mediating a ceasefire in the war that has killed at least 40,939 people, according to authorities in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

According to the United Nations Office for Human Rights, most of the dead are women and children.

According to official Israeli figures, 1,205 people were killed in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, most of them civilians, including some hostages killed during the hostage-taking.

Of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Palestinian militants during the attack, 97 are still in Gaza, including 33 who the Israeli military says are dead.

During a week-long ceasefire in November, numerous documents were published.

Israel's announcement last Sunday that it had recovered the bodies of six hostages, including a US-Israeli citizen, shortly after they were killed, sparked grief and anger in Israel.

To mark the anniversary, the head of the United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, posted on X on Saturday: “Eleven months. Enough. No one can take this any longer. Humanity must prevail. Ceasefire now.”

International pressure to end the war was further underscored by the shooting death of a Turkish-American activist in the West Bank on Friday while protesting against Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.

The family of 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi called for an independent investigation into her death and said on Saturday that her life was “necessarily, unlawfully and violently taken by the Israeli military.”

The UN Human Rights Office said Israeli forces killed Eygi with a “shot to the head.”

Ankara said she was killed by “Israeli occupation soldiers” and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the Israeli action as “barbaric”.

Washington called her death “tragic” and urged its close ally Israel to investigate.

– Attack on the West Bank –

Israeli settlements in the West Bank – home to about 490,000 people – are illegal under international law.

Since the Hamas attack on October 7, Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 662 Palestinians in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in 1967, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

At least 23 Israelis, including members of the security forces, were killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period, Israeli officials say.

Eygi's death came on the day Israeli forces withdrew from a 10-day deadly assault on the West Bank city of Jenin. AFP journalists reported that residents returned home in a state of devastation.

The withdrawal from Jenin came at a time when Israel and the United States were at loggerheads over negotiations for a ceasefire in the Gaza war.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that there was 90 percent agreement and called on Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement.

But Netanyahu denied this, telling Fox News: “It's not close.”

Hamas is demanding Israel's complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and said it agreed to a proposal by US President Joe Biden months ago.

AFP reporters said the area was hit by several air strikes and artillery shelling overnight and early Saturday.

The Gaza Strip Civil Defense and the Palestinian Red Crescent said four people were killed in an Israeli air strike near the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

Civil defense and a witness said four more people were killed in an airstrike on an apartment in the Bureij camp.

And in Jabalia, four more Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike, civil defense officials said.

They added that a woman and a child were also killed in an airstrike north of Gaza City.

Medical officials reported that at least 33 Palestinians were injured in an airstrike on a residential area in Beit Lahia. They were being treated at Al-Awda, Kamal Adwan and Indonesian hospitals, they said.