Four and a half months after the October 7 attack, the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, while an Israeli delegation returns from Paris and is expected soon in Qatar to negotiate a possible truce.
Israel kills two Hezbollah members in Syria strike
Two members of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement were killed early Sunday in an Israeli strike targeting a truck in Syria, near the border with Lebanon, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH).
“Israel fired a missile at a truck (...) near the Syrian-Lebanese border in an area located between the provinces of Homs and the suburbs of Damascus
,” the Observatory reported.
The strike resulted in
“the death of at least two members of Hezbollah
,” he said.
Syrian state media did not report the strike, and Hezbollah had no immediate comment.
Read alsoIsrael-Hamas war: the Hebrew state says it has struck thousands of Hezbollah targets in Syria and Lebanon
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since the outbreak of the civil war in this neighboring country in 2011, mainly targeting groups close to Iran, including Hezbollah, allies of the Syrian regime, as well as the Syrian army.
These strikes have increased in the context of hostilities in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
Israeli delegation to visit Qatar for new truce deal
The Israeli war cabinet gave the green light on Saturday to sending a delegation to Qatar shortly to continue the discussions of recent days in Paris with a view to a new truce agreement in Gaza accompanied by the release of hostages, according to officials and local media.
An Israeli delegation led by Mossad chief David Barnea traveled to Paris on Friday to follow up on a truce project discussed at the end of January in the French capital with its American and Egyptian counterparts and the Prime Minister of Qatar.
“The delegation has returned from Paris, there is probably room to move towards an agreement
,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, declared on Saturday evening on Israeli channel N12.
“The delegation asked to inform the war cabinet of the results of the Paris summit and that is why the war cabinet will meet this evening by telephone
,” he added, shortly before the start of the meeting.
During the night, Israeli media clarified that the war cabinet had concluded its meeting by giving the green light to send a delegation to Qatar in the coming days in order to continue these negotiations with a view to an agreement for a truce of several weeks including the release of hostages in exchange for that of Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
Gaza residents flee famine
Hundreds of people, driven by hunger, fled the besieged northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, as the Israeli war cabinet approved continued discussions on a truce with Palestinian Hamas, according to local media.
The humanitarian situation continues to worsen in the Palestinian territory where 2.2 million people, the vast majority of the population, are threatened with
“mass famine”
, according to the UN.
The aid, which enters in dribs and drabs through the Rafah crossing in the far south of Gaza, is subject to Israel's green light and its delivery to the north is almost impossible due to destruction and fighting.
Clashes continued into the night in Khan Younès (south) but also in Beit Lahia and Zeitoun (north), and it is now the lack of food which is also pushing the population to leave, an AFP correspondent saying. report on Sunday of hundreds of people leaving the north towards the center of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas gives new toll of 29,692 people killed in Gaza
This figure, given by the Hamas Ministry of Health, is impossible to verify.
It corresponds to the number of people killed in Gaza since the start of the Israeli intervention, without distinguishing between combatants and civilians.