The Israeli army may be about to launch its operation on Rafah, in the far south of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the IDF's "plans" for such an offensive this Friday, the government said in a statement.
“The Israeli army is ready for the operational side and for the evacuation of the population,” indicates the Prime Minister's office in its press release, which gives no further details on this operation.
In order to definitively defeat Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had long announced an upcoming ground offensive on Rafah, a town on the closed border with Egypt, where, according to the UN, around a million and half of Palestinians.
Such a prospect worries the international community, starting with the United States, Israel's main ally, which has raised its voice in recent weeks.
Israel must make the protection of civilians and humanitarian aid in Gaza its “number one” priority, American Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared this Wednesday.
Also this Wednesday, Unrwa, the UN agency responsible for aiding Palestinian refugees, announced that one of its warehouses in Rafah, in the south of Gaza, had been hit by an Israeli strike which killed at least one of its employees and injured 22.
Still no truce
This Friday, Hamas said it was ready for a six-week truce.
As part of this truce, 42 hostages – women, children, the elderly and the sick – could be released in exchange for 20 to 50 Palestinian prisoners, depending on whether the hostages are civilians or soldiers, and at the rate of one hostage per day, added this official on condition of anonymity.
This is much less than what Hamas has demanded so far, which has therefore agreed to change its position.
Also read: “Gaza is a funnel”: why the evacuation of Palestinian civilians seems like a mission impossible
According to Israel, 130 hostages from October 7 are still detained in Gaza, of whom 32 are believed to be dead.
During this possible six-week truce, the Islamist movement also demands the “withdrawal of the army from all towns and populated areas”, the “return of the displaced without restrictions” and the entry of at least 500 aid trucks humanitarian aid per day, this official further explained.
At the end of this first phase, Hamas intends to achieve a "comprehensive exchange of prisoners", including the "release of captured Israeli officers and soldiers and those killed by Hamas and other movements" in exchange for prisoners. Palestinians at an unspecified ratio, the official continued.