According to Haniyeh, Hamas asks that Israel leave Gaza, there be a truce, and the “unjust siege” be lifted.
The organization released a statement blaming Israel for the lack of progress in reaching a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, according to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
On Saturday, Haniyeh declared that the Palestinian organization would only accept the “lifting of the unjust siege,” an Israeli departure from Gaza, and a total stop of hostilities.
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“So far, it’s clear that the occupation [Israel] continues to wriggle and postpone issues pertaining to our people, even as its position revolves around the release of prisoners held by the
opposition,” Haniyeh declared.
In any future swap agreement, he continued, Israel must likewise release Palestinian inmates serving lengthy sentences.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to Hamas’s demands as “delusional” and stated that a fresh agreement to free the prisoners “does not appear very close” in an address later on Saturday.
Air attacks struck throughout the territory on Saturday while Israeli forces executed arrests in Nasser Hospital, the largest operational medical institution in Gaza, according to military and health officials.
A representative for the Gaza Health Ministry, Ashraf al-Qudra, stated that “Occupation troops imprisoned a huge number of medical staff members within Nasser Medical Complex, which they [Israel] transformed intoa military base.”
Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Friday that at least five patients have died as a result of the cutting off of oxygen supplies and electricity following Israel’s entry into Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, which started on Thursday.
The Israeli military claimed to be searching for fighters in Nasser and to have killed combatants close to the hospital and discovered weapons inside. To date, the military has detained 100 suspects on the property.
Claims that Hamas fighters take cover in medical facilities have been refuted by the organization. At least two of the Israeli hostages who have been freed have stated that they were kept in Nasser, but Israel has not produced substantial proof to support earlier claims that hospitals have been utilized as Hamas command centers or that hospitals have been the holding places for detainees.
Human rights organizations have labeled Israel’s frequent attacks on hospitals as “unlawful.” HRW has demanded that these attacks be “investigated as war crimes,” and South Africa has claimed before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague that Israel’s attacks on Gaza’s healthcare system are proof of “genocidal acts.”
Concerns have been expressed concerning patients, medical staff, and displaced Palestinians taking refuge in the hospital as a result of the Israeli incursion.
Earlier this week, the hospital was housing some 10,000 Palestinians, but many of them departed either in anticipation of the Israeli raid or in response to Israeli demands to leave, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Israeli airstrikes target Gaza’s center.
Health officials reported that since Friday, Israeli airstrikes had claimed the lives of at least 83 people in the Gaza Strip, one of whom died on Saturday in Rafah, a territory that borders Egypt and which Israel reportedly believes is Hamas’s last stronghold.
According to local and medical sources, Israeli air raids in central Gaza resulted in the deaths of at least 44 Palestinian civilians, including children, and the injuries of numerous more when their residential dwellings were attacked. This information was also published by the Palestinian Wafa news agency on Saturday.
Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, was the target of several airstrikes. Since Israel stepped up its operations on the southern city of Rafah, Palestinians who have been internally displaced are returning to this area.
Raids were carried out in the city’s south and east, an area that has been heavily bombarded for the previous week. To transport victims to the hospital, ambulances were dispatched quickly to the incident.
Hany Allouh, a 39-year-old father of two small children, said, “That was insane.” “An enormous explosion was caused by the rockets as they flew overhead.” People in the streets were terrified as they burst one after the other.
According to the Israeli military, since Friday, their jets have killed multiple fighters in Gaza.
Air raid sirens alerting people to approaching rockets were heard on Saturday in Ashkelon, a city in southern Israel.
“Catastrophic” outcomes
Israel has affirmed that it will soon begin a ground invasion of Rafah despite strong international condemnation. It is the area where, during the four-month battle, Israeli attacks throughout Gaza have forced an estimated 1.4 million of the 2.3 million residents of the enclave to flee their homes.
In his speech on Saturday, Netanyahu reaffirmed that Israel will carry out its planned attack regardless of the outcome of any agreement to free the prisoners.
However, six human rights and aid organizations have alerted the world to the “catastrophic” effects of an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah.
The leaders of Oxfam, Amnesty International, ActionAid, War Child, the Danish Refugee Council, and Handicap International all signed the joint statement.
“If Israel carries out its intended ground invasion, many more people will perish, and there’s a chance that the current flow of humanitarian aid may stop completely.The implications of this military plan will be disastrous if it is not stopped right away, the statement warned.
Josep Borrell, the head of EU foreign policy, has reiterated appeals for Israel to refrain from intervening militarily in Rafah.
Borrell wrote on X that taking such action would “worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian situation.”
US President Joe Biden said on Friday that during “extensive” talks this week, he informed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on multiple occasions that there “has to be a temporary ceasefire” in Gaza.
According to Biden, he warned Netanyahu against conducting a military assault into Rafah in the absence of a “credible and executable plan” to safeguard Palestinians who are seeking refuge there.
It was “unclear,” according to Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Washington, DC, whether Netanyahu was paying attention to Biden.
According to Halkett, “he has not historically, particularly when it comes to the US cautioning about how to conduct the Israeli military campaign.”
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