Hamas is expected to respond soon to a proposal that includes hostage releases
A senior Hamas official said Friday the group will respond “very soon” to a proposal that includes extended pauses in Gaza fighting and phased exchanges of Hamas-held hostages for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
Hamas and other militants in Gaza are holding dozens of hostages, after having abducted about 250 during their deadly Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and sparked Israel’s blistering offensive on the enclave. More than 100 hostages were released during a one-week truce in November, in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Over 27,000 people have been killed and 66,000 wounded by Israel's offensive against Hamas in Gaza, the territory's Health Ministry said Thursday. The Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths, but says most of those killed were women and children.
Israel’s war in Gaza threatens to spill over into neighboring countries, despite persistent efforts by top officials around the globe to tamp down regional tensions.
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Belgium makes diplomatic protest after Gaza agency destroyed
Belgium’s foreign ministry said Friday that it had summoned the Israeli ambassador to complain about the destruction of the country’s development agency office in Gaza.
Enabel’s office was in a six-story building in Gaza City. The ministry said it believed that none of the agency’s staff were present in the office when the building was bombed.
Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib, accompanied by Development Minister Caroline Gennez, shared their concerns with Israel’s envoy to Belgium, Idit Rosenzweig-Abu, the ministry said in a statement.
“The destruction of civilian infrastructure is absolutely unacceptable and does not comply with international law,” it said. Given the ongoing war in Gaza, Belgium decided two weeks ago to pull all Enabel staff and their families out of the territory.
“We very much hope that these people – including many children – will be able to leave Gaza quickly and unharmed,” the ministry said.
Belgium currently holds the European Union’s rotating presidency. It plans to put the issue of compensation for damaged Gaza infrastructure financed by the bloc and its member countries on the agenda for debate.
Iran-backed militia warns it will continue operations against US troops
In a statement released Friday, one of Iraq’s strongest Iran-backed militias, Harakat al-Nujaba, announced its plans to continue military operations against U.S. troops, despite allied factions having called off their attacks in the wake of a drone strike that killed three U.S. service members in Jordan Sunday.
Kataib Hezbollah, another powerful Iranian-backed Iraqi militia, which has been watched closely by U.S. officials, said Tuesday it would “suspend military and security operations against the occupying forces” to avoid embarrassing the Iraqi government.
Akram al-Kaabi, leader of the Harakat al-Nujaba militia said in a statement Friday that “we respect their decision” but announced the continuation of his group’s military operations against U.S. troops. He dismissed U.S. threats of retaliation.
Al-Nujaba, which emerged from the larger Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq militia in 2013, has fought both opposition forces in Syria and the Islamic State militant group in Iraq.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias that the U.S. has blamed for the deadly attack in Jordan, has launched more than 160 attacks on bases hosting U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 7, amid tensions over U.S. support for Israel in the ongoing war in Gaza.
These attacks have put Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in a difficult position. Although backed by Iran-aligned factions, al-Sudani has sought to maintain favorable relations with Washington and has denounced the assaults on U.S. forces.
Hamas seeks release of key Palestinian prisoners
A senior Hamas official says his group is still studying a proposed multi-stage deal of prolonged pauses in Gaza fighting, accompanied by swaps of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, but at the same time he appeared to rule out key components of the proposal.
Osama Hamdan said the release of all hostages, believed to number more than 100, will only be possible if Israel ends its war on Hamas in Gaza and releases the thousands of Palestinian security prisoners Israel is holding.
He singled out two prisoners by name, including Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti, who is serving multiple life sentences in Israel for his alleged role in several deadly attacks carried out a generation ago. Barghouti remains popular among Palestinians and is viewed as a unifying figure.
Hamdan said he believes his group holds enough hostages to be able to win the freedom of all prisoners serving sentences in Israeli prisons.
A priority is to win freedom for those serving life sentences, regardless of the groups they belong to. In addition to Barghouti, he named Ahmed Saadat, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine as well as Hamas prisoners and those from the Islamic Jihad group.
Hamdan told Lebanon’s LBC TV that Hamas insists on a permanent cease-fire, rejecting the proposal’s staged approach, with several pauses in fighting.
“There is no way that this will be acceptable to the resistance,” he said.
“We have tried temporary truces and it turned out that the Israelis don’t respect these truces but always violate them,” Hamdan said in an apparent reference to a weeklong truce in November after which Israel resumed its offensive.
Hamdan said Hamas wants an end to the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip as well as promises for the reconstruction of the territory.