International mediators intensified their efforts this Wednesday to reach a truce agreement between Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where
the UN fears a "massacre"
if the Israeli army launches an operation in the city of Rafah.
According to the Health Ministry of Hamas, which rules the Strip, 103 people were killed in Israeli nighttime bombings in the last 24 hours in the besieged Palestinian territory,
devastated by more than four months of war.
The attacks targeted in particular
the cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah
, in the south, next to the closed border with Egypt, converted into the last refuge for 1.5 million Palestinians, according to the UN, the vast majority
displaced by the war and living in extreme conditions.
Since Tuesday,
Egypt has received representatives from the United States,
Israel's main supporter, and Qatar, where the Hamas leader lives.
The objective of negotiating
a truce that includes the release of the hostages
kidnapped in Gaza on October 7 during an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli territory.
The head of the Mossad, the Israeli secret service, David Barnea, participated in the talks along with the director of the CIA, William Burns, the Prime Minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdelrahman Al Thani, and Egyptian officials, reported nearby AlQahera News television. to Egyptian intelligence.
The Israeli delegation then left Cairo, according to Israeli media, but
negotiations will continue for "the next three days
," AlQahera News said on Tuesday.
A Hamas delegation is scheduled to travel to Cairo, probably this Wednesday, according to a source in the Palestinian movement, considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
Photo taken from Rafah shows smoke after an Israeli bombardment on Khan Yunis.
Photo: SAID KHATIB / AFP
From the West Bank, Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority and the Fatah party, rival of Hamas, urged the Islamist movement in power in Gaza
to "quickly close" an agreement that would allow the release of Palestinian prisoners and avoid "catastrophic consequences."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, highly critical of the Israeli offensive in Gaza,
will be received on Wednesday
in Cairo by his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.
"We are working intensively with Egypt and Qatar on a proposal for the release of the hostages," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday.
According to Israel, of the approximately 250 people kidnapped on October 7,
130 are still being held in Gaza, 29 of whom are believed to have died.
A week-long truce in November
allowed the release of 105 hostages
in exchange for 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Displaced Palestinians flee Rafah.
Photo: EFE
This Wednesday, nearly a hundred relatives of the hostages went to The Hague to present
a complaint against Hamas for "crimes against humanity"
before the International Criminal Court (ICC), according to their representatives.
The war was sparked by the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants in southern Israel, where some 1,160 people, mostly civilians, were killed, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.
In retaliation, Israel
promised to "destroy" Hamas and its military offensive has left 28,576 dead in Gaza,
the vast majority civilians, according to the latest balance from the Ministry of Health in Gaza this Wednesday.
Since the start of the war,
entire neighborhoods in Gaza have been leveled
by relentless Israeli bombardment and
1.7 million people have been displaced
, according to the UN.
The Gaza Strip,
an overpopulated territory of 362 km2
, besieged by Israel and mired in a major humanitarian crisis, has approximately 2.4 million inhabitants.
Rafah, "last bastion" of Hamas
Rafah is the last urban center
where the Israeli army has not yet penetrated and the main entry point for humanitarian aid, insufficient to meet the needs of a population threatened in the middle of winter by famine and epidemics, according to the UN.
A camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah.
Photo: Reuters
In early February, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the army to prepare an offensive on Rafah,
the "last stronghold" of Hamas
, according to him.
However, on Sunday he assured that Israel
would open "a safe passage" for the population to leave the city, without specifying where.
The United States, Israel's great ally,
said it opposes an offensive against Rafah
if there are no guarantees for the safety of civilians, while the head of Humanitarian Affairs of the UN, Martin Griffiths, warned that "military operations in Rafah could lead to a massacre."
"If they ask me to return to Gaza City, I will only do so if it is safe," said a mother, Ahlam Abu Assi, displaced with her family in Rafah.
"If not, I prefer to die here. They are already dying of hunger there."
With information from AFP