LAST UPDATE | 16 Mar
STALLED TALKS AIMED at securing a ceasefire in Gaza are expected to restart in Qatar as soon as Sunday, according to Egyptian officials.
The talks would mark the first time both Israeli officials and Hamas leaders joined the indirect negotiations since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Hamas gave mediators a new proposal for a three-stage plan that would end the fighting, according to two Egyptian officials, one who is involved in the talks and a second who was briefed on them.
Israel said it would send a delegation to Qatar for another round of talks on a possible deal. It also advanced plans for a military operation in Rafah, where most of Gaza’s population has sought refuge from more than five months of war and deprivation.
The White House, which has said an assault on Rafah would be a “red line” without credible civilian protection plans, said it had not seen the plan approved by Netanyahu.
“We certainly would welcome the opportunity to see it,” National Security Council (NSC) spokesman John Kirby said, adding that the United States could not support any plan without “credible” proposals to shelter more than one million Gazans.
The US charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) has said its team had finished unloading almost 200 tonnes of food, the first shipment to arrive on a new maritime aid corridor from Cyprus.
“All cargo was offloaded and is being readied for distribution in Gaza,” WCK said in a statement.
WCK’s partner, the Open Arms vessel which towed the aid on a barge, had sailed from Larnaca port on Tuesday.
Residents say they have resorted to eating wild plants and animal fodder, and some have stormed the few aid trucks that have made it through.
🚨 1 in 3 children under 2 years of age are now acutely malnourished in northern #Gaza.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) March 16, 2024
Children's malnutrition is spreading fast and reaching unprecedented levels in #Gaza. Famine is looming. There is no time to waste.@UNICEF @UNICEFmena @unicefchief https://t.co/YbkEf2C9ay
In a statement today, the main UN agency operating in the Palestinian enclave said that one in three children under two years of age are now acutely malnourished in northern Gaza.
“Children’s malnutrition is spreading fast and reaching unprecedented levels in Gaza,” the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
“Famine is looming. There is no time to waste.”
The Palestinian health ministry said at least 63 people had been killed over the previous 24 hours. Earlier today, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra reported 36 deaths from a strike on a house sheltering displaced people in Nuseirat, central Gaza.
AFPTV images showed a building blown apart. Yussef Tabatibi, lifting concrete blocks among the rubble, said residents were trying to recover the dead with only their bare hands.
“What should we do? God help us,” he said.
Witnesses reported air strikes and fighting in the southern Gaza Strip’s main city Khan Yunis as well as areas of the north.
The first stage of the proposed deal would be a six-week ceasefire that would include the release of 35 hostages being held by militants in Gaza in exchange for 350 Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel.
Hamas would also release at least five female soldiers in exchange for 50 prisoners, including some serving long sentences on terror charges, for each soldier.
Many Palestinians in Israeli prisons are teenagers, who are being held for stone throwing and damaging property. According to BBC, most are in prison awaiting trial, with less than a quarter of those on the list having been convicted.
Israeli forces would withdraw from two main roads in Gaza, let displaced Palestinians return to north Gaza, which has been devastated by the fighting, and allow the free flow of aid to the area, the officials said.
In the second phase, the two sides would declare a permanent ceasefire and Hamas would free the remaining Israeli soldiers held hostage in exchange for more prisoners, the officials said.
In the third phase, Hamas would hand over the bodies it is holding in exchange for Israel lifting the blockade of Gaza and allowing reconstruction to start, the officials said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the proposal “unrealistic”. However, he agreed to send Israeli negotiators to Qatar for more talks.
Israel did not attend earlier negotiations in Cairo which failed to secure a truce for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan which began last Monday.
Washington’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday acknowledged “a counter-proposal” from Hamas and said, “we’re working intensively with Israel, with Qatar, with Egypt, to bridge the remaining gaps and to try to reach an agreement.”
The United States, which provides Israel with billions of dollars in military assistance, has grown increasingly critical of Netanyahu over his handling of the war but has not supported an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
During a visit to the White House on Friday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told US President Joe Biden that a ceasefire and two-state solution are necessary to achieve peace in Gaza.
“I agree,” Biden responded, but he made it clear that the US would continue to support Israel, including to supply arms.
While there had been calls for Varadkar to boycott the visit this year due to the ongoing conflict, he argued that he would rather use his voice to set out Ireland’s position on the trip rather than give up the unique opportunity Ireland has every year.
On Monday, during his first speech of the trip, Varadkar called for a humanitarian ceasefire.
Former president Mary Robinson had urged the Taoiseach to use the meeting with Biden to “send a political message in a very direct way”.
Speaking to the News at One on RTÉ, Robinson, the chair of The Elders, called for the opening up of “every avenue, mainly land avenues” to allow for aid to flow into the region.
“This government of (Israel) Prime Minister Netanyahu is on the wrong side of history and is making the United States complicit in reducing a people to famine, making the world complicit,” she said.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned of looming famine, with only a fraction of the supplies needed to sustain Gaza’s 2.4 million people being let in.
Hamas’s 7 October attack resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign against Hamas has killed at least 31,553 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.
The ministry on Thursday accused Israeli troops of opening fire from “tanks and helicopters” as Palestinians waited for aid at a roundabout in Gaza City, killing 20 people and wounding dozens.
The Israeli military denied firing on the crowd.
“Armed Palestinians opened fire while Gazan civilians were awaiting the arrival of the aid convoy,” and then “continued to shoot as the crowd of Gazans began looting the trucks”, a military statement said.
With reporting from Press Association and © AFP 2024
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