Mediators pushed on with efforts for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire as fighting raged on in the besieged Gaza Strip on Thursday, deepening a dire humanitarian crisis.
The Israeli military said troops had “eliminated dozens of terrorists” in the past day and destroyed a long-range missile launcher in the embattled southern city of Khan Younis.
The Qatar-based leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was expected in Cairo on Thursday or Friday for talks on a proposed truce.
Three-stage plan
A Hamas source told AFP the three-stage plan would start with an initial six-week halt to the fighting that would see more aid deliveries into the Gaza Strip. Only “women, children and sick men over 60” held by Gaza militants would be freed during that stage in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel, the source said, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks.
There would also be “negotiations around the withdrawal of Israeli forces,” with possible additional phases involving more hostage-prisoner exchanges, said the source, adding that Gaza’s rebuilding was also among issues addressed by the deal.
Israeli forces target Hamas militants
In Gaza, there was no let-up in fighting or aerial bombardment, with the current focus of combat in Khan Younis, where Israel says leading Hamas militants are hiding. Overnight, witnesses said several Israeli air strikes hit the city, while aid and health workers have for days reported heavy fighting, particularly around two hospitals.
According to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, 119 people were killed in the latest night of strikes. Israel accuses Hamas of operating from tunnels under hospitals in Gaza and of using medical facilities as command centers, a charge denied by the Islamist group, which is designated a “terrorist” organisation by the European Union and the United States.
Netanyahu calls for UN aid agency to leave Gaza
For people in Gaza, access to aid has been further hampered by a controversy surrounding the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, after Israel accused several of its staff of involvement in the Hamas attack. The claims last week saw several donor countries, led by key Israel ally the United States, freeze funding for the agency.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres told a UN committee he had “met with donors to listen to their concerns and to outline the steps we are taking.” UNRWA spokeswoman Tamara Alrifai told AFP the agency supports “an independent investigation” into the Israeli claims that led to the funding crisis.
Netanyahu told a meeting of UN ambassadors in Jerusalem that UNRWA had been “totally infiltrated” by Hamas and called for other agencies to replace it. The US State Department has said 12 UNRWA employees “may have been involved” out of 13,000 in Gaza and has said that it is “imperative” that the agency continue its “absolutely indispensable role.” ‘
Gaza economy may not recover until 2092′
It could take until the closing years of the century for Gaza’s economy to regain its pre-conflict size if hostilities in the Palestinian enclave were to cease immediately, the U.N. trade body said in a report published on Wednesday. Israel’s offensive in Gaza in the wake of attacks by Hamas gunmen on October 7 have killed more than 26,000 people, according to local authorities, and decimated infrastructure and the livelihoods of its 2.3 million inhabitants.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said the conflict had precipitated a 24 percent contraction in Gaza’s GDP (gross domestic product) and a 26.1 percent drop in GDP per capita for all of 2023. UNCTAD said that if the military operation were to end and reconstruction to start immediately – and if the growth trend seen in 2007-2022 persisted, at an annual average rate of 0.4 percent – Gaza could restore its pre-conflict GDP levels in 2092. At best, under a scenario that GDP could grow at 10 percent annually, it would still take Gaza’s GDP per capita until 2035 to reach the level of 2006, a year before Israel made permanent a land, sea and air blockade citing security concerns.
