By Ken Afor
Officials from the militant group Hamas have made the release of hostages in Gaza conditional on a ceasefire over Israel’s bombing of Palestinian enclaves following a deadly attack in southern Israel three weeks ago.
Israel has said it is preparing a ground attack, but the United States and Arab countries have called for the operation to be delayed, which could lead to increased civilian casualties and further escalation of the conflict in densely populated coastal areas.
Two US warplanes struck an arms and ammunition base in Syria on Friday in response to attacks on US troops by Iran-backed militias since the Gaza war broke out.
A poll on Friday showed that almost half of Israelis want to postpone the ground invasion on account of the Hamas-held hostages.
Russian newspaper Kommersant quoted a Hamas delegation visiting Moscow as saying it would take time to find all those kidnapped by various Palestinian groups during the October 7 Hamas attack.
“They seized dozens of people, most of them civilians, and we need time to find them in the Gaza Strip and then release them,” Abu Hamid said.
He said Hamas, which has released four hostages so far, had made clear its intention to release “civilian prisoners but that requires a” “calm peaceful environment.”
This allegedly supports claims that 50 of the prisoners were killed by Israeli shelling.
Hamas officials in Moscow consider all hostages to be Israeli, regardless of additional passports, and cannot release them unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire, Russian media reported.
A senior US official said he was willing to review Hamas’ presence in Qatar after Qatar agreed to rescue American hostages.
Qatar, which is cooperating with the United States in hostage mediation talks with Hamas and Israel, did not immediately respond.
Palestinian militants clashed with Israeli forces in at least two areas of the Gaza Strip, Hamas-linked media reported.
The Israeli military did not immediately confirm the information. Residents in central Gaza said they heard gunfire as well as heavy shelling and airstrikes along the border, and Israeli planes dropping flares and bombs.
Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades reported that Israeli forces attempted to land on the southern beaches of the Gaza Strip.Israel said its warplanes struck three senior Hamas members who played a key role in the October attack.
Hamas has not confirmed the seventh attack. Missile sirens sounded in southern Israel in the afternoon, and an Israeli doctor said rockets had hit Tel Aviv, injuring three people.
Jehad Al-Kafarnah, the pregnant wife of a Palestinian lawyer, was killed in an airstrike in the Jabari refugee camp in northern Gaza.
“My life, my heart, I love you,” Kafarnah wrote as he cried on the white sheet wrapped around his wife’s body. He was holding the body of her stillborn eight-month-old child, wrapped in a white cloth.
As Gaza’s 2.3 million civilians grow increasingly desperate under a siege that has cut off access to electricity, water, food, fuel and medicine, aid issues will be at the center of Friday’s meeting of the 193-member United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Unlike the UN Security Council, which rejected a resolution supporting the Gaza Strip this week, it cannot veto a resolution calling for a ceasefire from Arab countries.
This resolution is non-binding and has political implications.
According to the United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA), more than 600,000 people in the Gaza Strip have lost their homes. Ten trucks loaded with food and medicine, along with 10 foreign doctors, have arrived in the Gaza Strip from Egypt for the first time since Israel tightened its blockade three weeks ago, a Palestinian official said.
About 84 trucks were produced in three weeks. The United Nations said Gaza needed about 100 aid trucks every day, and officials said talks were underway with Israel, which wants to block resources from reaching Hamas, to find a faster mechanism.
French President Emmanuel Macron said several European countries want to form a “humanitarian coalition” in Gaza and that Cyprus could be a base.
UNRWA Director Philippe Lazzarini said 57 UNRWA staff were killed in the Israeli bombing.
UN Human Rights Representative Raveena Shamdasani was on the move when she described the plight of UN staff.
“Many of them are sleeping out in the open. You have to make calculations about whether a ceiling collapsing on you or being hit by shrapnel is more likely to happen.”
A spokesman for the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) said only one of two bakeries contracted to feed thousands of refugee families had fuel to cook the bread, but “tomorrow there might not be done.”
Demands for the detention stem from concerns about Gaza civilians and Israeli hostages, as well as fears that the crisis could spark conflict in the Middle East.
US President Joe Biden ordered strikes overnight on two Syrian bases used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and the militias it supports, after the Pentagon issued a rare direct warning to Iran not to attack US forces.
Israel said on October 7 that Hamas had killed about 1,400 people, including children.
Gaza’s Health Ministry, run by Hamas, said 7,326 Palestinians, including about 3,000 children, were killed in retaliatory airstrikes.
Biden has questioned casualty figures released by Palestinian officials in the Gaza Strip, but international aid groups have said the figures are accurate and previously reliable.
A poll by the Israeli newspaper Maariv found that 49 percent of Israelis said it was better to wait before launching a large-scale ground attack, while 29 percent disagreed.
A week ago, 65% supported a ground invasion.
