Egypt says it has proposed a framework to end the conflict in Gaza
Egypt said on Thursday that it had put forward a framework proposal to end the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip that includes three stages ending with a ceasefire, and said it was awaiting responses on the plan.
Egypt would give further details of the plan once those responses are received, Reuters reports Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt’s State Information Service, said in a statement.
The proposal is an attempt “to bring viewpoints between all concerned parties closer, in an effort to stop Palestinian bloodshed and the aggression against the Gaza Strip and restore peace and stability to the region”, he said.
Egyptian security sources had previously said the proposal included a multi-stage ceasefire involving prisoner releases by Israel and Hamas. One Egyptian source said the idea of a postwar Gaza administration was raised.
Earlier this week Jordan’s King Abdullah II visited Cairo for talks about Gaza with Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.
More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its campaign there, according to the local authorities, and Israel has lost at least 160 soldiers in its ground campaign. More than 55,000 Palestinians have been wounded, and 85% of the population of the territory has been displaced.
Key events
Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, visited Cyprus last week for talks on setting up a maritime humanitarian corridor to Gaza.
During his visit to Nicosia, Cohen expressed support for creating a “fast track” for aid to be sent to Gaza by sea.
“International aid, well supervised, will help the region gain more stability and prosperity,” he said after talks with his Cypriot counterpart, Constantinos Kombos.
Under the plan, the aid would be checked in Cyprus by a joint committee, including representatives from Israel. Cyprus has said it is ready to deliver large quantities of aid through this “maritime lifeline”, which expected to provide “a sustained flow of high-volume humanitarian assistance to the civilians” in Gaza.
The initiative faces logistical, political and security challenges, as Gaza lacks port facilities. The UK has offered amphibious vessels able to access the territory’s coastline without the need for special infrastructure, according to Reuters.
Israel grants preliminary approval for maritime aid corridor from Cyprus to Gaza
Israel has given preliminary approval to Cyprus to set up a maritime humanitarian aid corridor to Gaza, Israels’s foreign ministry has said.
The proposal, which has been in the works for more than a month, aims to deliver large quantities of aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
Cyprus, the closest EU member state to the Middle East, has offered to establish a humanitarian corridor to collect, inspect and store aid before shipping it to Gaza, about 230 miles (370km) away.
The Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson, Lior Haiat, said on Thursday that Israel had tentatively approved a system to allow international aid to be checked “with Israeli supervision” in Cyprus before being delivered directly to the territory, AFP reported. He told the news agency:
There’s a basic authorisation to use this route, but there are still some logistical problems that are waiting to be solved.
It comes after the UN security council last week passed a resolution calling for “safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale” into Gaza.
According to the Cyprus news agency, citing official sources, Cyprus has completed its part of the necessary procedures, but the issue of the security of the ships and their crews approaching Gaza was raised, as well as who would receive the aid.
The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, warned against any escalation in the conflict in Gaza as he met the Lebanese prime minister, Najib Mikati.
Cameron, posting to social media, said an escalation of the conflict in Gaza to Lebanon, the Red Sea or the wider region would “add to the extremely high level of danger and insecurity in the world”.
He added that he was grateful to the Lebanese prime minister for “discussing these crucial issues with me today and for Lebanon’s efforts to prevent such escalation”.
Cameron’s post comes as the war in Gaza threatens to spill outside the borders of Israel and the Palestinian territories, and amid intensifying clashes along the Lebanon-Israel border between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces.
Summary of the day so far …
It is 5pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines …
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Egypt said on Thursday that it had put forward a framework proposal to end the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip that includes three stages ending with a ceasefire, and said it was awaiting responses on the plan. Egyptian security sources had previously said the proposal included a multi-stage ceasefire involving prisoner releases by Israel and Hamas.
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The main focus of fighting is now in central areas, where Israeli forces have ordered civilians out over the past several days as their tanks advance. Tens of thousands of people fleeing the huge Nusseirat, Bureij and Maghazi districts were heading south or west on Thursday into the already overwhelmed city of Deir al-Balah along the Mediterranean coast, crowding into hastily built camps of makeshift tents. Israel’s military campaign and its repeated orders for civilians to evacuate to the south of the Gaza Strip have led to the displacement of 85% of the Palestinian population.
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A total of 21,320 Palestinians have been killed and 55,603 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said on Thursday. Qidra said 210 Palestinians had been killed in the past 24 hours. The health ministry in Gaza is run by Hamas.
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The UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) has said 40% of Gaza’s population was now at risk of famine. The agency said it was distributing flour to families in southern Gaza but there was “simply not enough food”. The schools that it has converted into shelters are four times over capacity.
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A UN report published on Thursday deplored what it said was a “rapid deterioration” of human rights in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and urged Israeli authorities to end violence against the Palestinian population there. The office of the UN high commissioner for human rights (OHCHR) said it had recorded mass arbitrary detentions, unlawful detentions, and cases of reported torture and other forms of ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees. It said about 4,785 Palestinians had been detained and 300 killed in the occupied West Bank since 7 October.
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One Palestinian has been killed and at least 15 injured in overnight raids by the Israeli military targeting money exchange shops in cities in the occupied West Bank. Israel’s national security minister published an image that he claimed showed items confiscated by Israel. In his message, Itamar Ben-Gvir claimed that “tens of millions of shekels, safes, documents, recording systems and telephones that were intended to finance Hamas terrorism were confiscated”.
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The number of Israeli service personnel injured during the war against Hamas has now reached roughly 3,000. That figure includes nearly 900 soldiers wounded since Israel began its ground offensive inside Gaza in late October. More than 160 soldiers have been killed since the ground operation began. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
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A drone has crashed near a village in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights, Israel’s army has said, after an Iraqi armed group with links to Hamas militants claimed responsibility for an attack in the area. Israeli media reported that a drone probably carrying explosives launched from Syria was shot down late Wednesday evening south of the settlement of Eliad, causing no injuries but some material damage. On Thursday Israel said it had shot down a drone that crossed into its territory from Lebanon.
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Israel’s military chief, Herzi Halevi, has said his forces were “at a very high level of readiness” amid escalating Hezbollah attacks from Lebanon. The Israeli war cabinet minister, Benny Gantz, separately said the situation on the country’s northern border “demands change” and the time for diplomacy was running out.
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Germany and its EU partners are examining whether they could mount a new maritime mission to protect commercial vessels under threat of attack in the Red Sea, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday. Yemen’s rebel Houthis have been targeting vessels using the Red Sea and Suez canal route in order, they say, to target shipping with links to Israel.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us from Gaza and Israel.
Reuters reports that the main focus of fighting is now in central areas south of the wetlands that bisect the Gaza Strip, where Israeli forces have ordered civilians out over the past several days as their tanks advance.
Tens of thousands of people fleeing the huge Nuseirat, Bureij and Maghazi districts were heading south or west on Thursday into the already overwhelmed city of Deir al-Balah along the Mediterranean coast, crowding into hastily built camps of makeshift tents.
The eastern part of Bureij was a scene of heavy fighting on Thursday morning, with Israeli tanks pushing in from the north and east, residents said.
One Palestinian man, who gave his name as Omar, told Reuters by phone: “That moment has come, I wished it would never happen, but it seems displacement is a must. We are now in a tent in Deir al-Balah because of this brutal Israeli war.”
He said he had been forced to move with at least 35 family members.
Egypt says it has proposed a framework to end the conflict in Gaza
Egypt said on Thursday that it had put forward a framework proposal to end the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip that includes three stages ending with a ceasefire, and said it was awaiting responses on the plan.
Egypt would give further details of the plan once those responses are received, Reuters reports Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt’s State Information Service, said in a statement.
The proposal is an attempt “to bring viewpoints between all concerned parties closer, in an effort to stop Palestinian bloodshed and the aggression against the Gaza Strip and restore peace and stability to the region”, he said.
Egyptian security sources had previously said the proposal included a multi-stage ceasefire involving prisoner releases by Israel and Hamas. One Egyptian source said the idea of a postwar Gaza administration was raised.
Earlier this week Jordan’s King Abdullah II visited Cairo for talks about Gaza with Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.
More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its campaign there, according to the local authorities, and Israel has lost at least 160 soldiers in its ground campaign. More than 55,000 Palestinians have been wounded, and 85% of the population of the territory has been displaced.
Chen Almog-Goldstein, one of the hostages freed during the temporary ceasefire, has told Reuters in an interview that she is worried about the women still being held captive by Hamas in Gaza, some of whom she said were seriously injured.
She told Reuters that at one point her family was placed in a hideout with a group of female captives.
She said the hostages were “beaten, handcuffed for some hours. Not just men, women were beaten too and we heard of sexual abuse, some first hand and some were girls we met who had witnessed it or had heard about it, harm inflicted at gunpoint.”
She told the news agency: “They said they could deal with the physical injuries but they didn’t know how they could deal with the way they were hurt sexually.”
“It is hell there,” said Almog-Goldstein. “[The remaining hostages] are trying to keep their morale up but when we were let out, they were already on the edge.”
Hamas has denied accusations of sexual abuse. About 240 hostages were seized from Israel on 7 October, and it is believed by Israeli authorities that there are 19 women among 129 hostages remaining captive and kept incommunicado in Gaza.
Almog-Goldstein, 49, a social worker, was held for 51 days alongside three of her children. Her husband and eldest daughter were killed on 7 October when gunmen broke into the family safe room in kibbutz Kfar Aza.
Earlier today a spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry said that Russia continues to work with both Israel and Qatar toward the release of three Russian citizens believed to be held by Hamas, but said that it is “not very easy”.
An Israeli airstrike on a home in the northern town of Beit Lahiyeh – one of the first targets of Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza that began in October – buried at least 21 people, including women and children, according to a family member.
Bassel Kheir al-Din, a journalist with a local TV station, told Associated Press the strike flattened his family house and severely damaged three neighbouring homes. He said 12 members of his family – including three children aged two, seven and eight – were buried and presumed dead, and that nine neighbours were missing.
In central Gaza, Israeli warplanes and artillery pounded the built-up Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps, levelling buildings, residents said.
Associated Press reported that a hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah received the bodies of 25 people killed overnight, including five children and seven women, hospital records showed on Thursday. Non-stop explosions could be heard throughout the night in the town – where hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter, with many spending cold nights sleeping on what is left of pavements.
“It was another night of killing and massacres,” said Saeed Moustafa, a resident of the Nuseirat camp. He said people were still crying out from the rubble of a house hit by an airstrike on Wednesday. “We are unable to get them out. We hear their screams but we don’t have equipment,” he said.
Germany and EU partners are examining whether they could mount a new maritime mission to protect commercial vessels under threat of attack in the Red Sea, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.
“We as the German government are ready for this. It is important that we as the EU are able to act as quickly as possible in view of the ongoing attacks,” Reuters reports the spokesperson said, adding that a decision on the matter had not yet been taken.
On Wednesday the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said he was opposed to the expansion of the EU’s Operation Atalanta anti-piracy mission in the Indian Ocean to encompass maritime traffic through the Red Sea and Suez Canal, but that Spain was willing to consider the creation of a different mission to tackle the problem.
Yemen’s rebel Houthis have been targeting vessels using the Red Sea and Suez canal route in order, they say, to target shipping with links to Israel.
Gaza health ministry: 21,320 Palestinians killed and 55,603 injured in Israeli strikes since 7 October
A total of 21,320 Palestinians have been killed and 55,603 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said on Thursday.
Reuters reports that Qidra said 210 Palestinians had been killed in the past 24 hours. The health ministry in Gaza is run by Hamas.
Eighty-five per cent of the Palestinian population in Gaza has been displaced after repeated calls by the Israeli military for civilians to evacuate to the south of the territory, where many are now struggling to find food while living in makeshift shelters. The UN refugee agency in the Gaza Strip has said 40% of the population is at risk of famine.
Earlier today, a UN report said at least 300 Palestinians had been killed since 7 October in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, said: “The use of military tactics means and weapons in law enforcement contexts [by Israel], the use of unnecessary or disproportionate force, and the enforcement of broad, arbitrary and discriminatory movement restrictions that affect Palestinians are extremely troubling.”
