The war between Israel and Hamas has left 33,729 dead in the Gaza Strip, mostly civilians, according to a report released on Sunday April 14 by the Palestinian Islamist movement’s health ministry. On the Israeli side, around 1,170 people died – most of them also civilians – during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, according to a count from Agence France-Presse (AFP) established from from official Israeli sources. Additionally, according to the Israeli army, 604 of its soldiers have been killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip.
Furthermore, more than 250 people were kidnapped during the attack on October 7, 2023 and taken as hostages to Palestinian territory, where 130 are still detained, including 34 presumed dead, according to the Israeli army.
The Jewish state and the Palestinian Islamist movement accuse each other of wanting to sabotage talks for a truce in Gaza.
Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service, said Sunday morning that Hamas has rejected the latest truce plan discussed in Cairo. The rejection of the proposal submitted by the three mediating countries – the United States, Egypt and Qatar – shows that the leader of the Islamist movement, Yahya “Sinouar, does not want a humanitarian agreement or the return of the hostages”, according to a Mossad press release. Yahya Sinouar “continues to exploit tensions with Iran” with the aim of “obtaining escalation in the region,” he explains. Israel “will continue to work to achieve the objectives of the war against Hamas with all its might,” the statement also read.
On Saturday evening, as Iran, Hamas’ supporter, prepared to launch more than three hundred drones and missiles against Israel, Hamas announced that it had submitted its response to Egyptian and Qatari mediators. Without explicitly rejecting their proposal, the Islamist movement reaffirmed its two main demands: the permanent nature of the ceasefire and the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip.
However, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, considers these requests “unfounded”. He accused Hamas on Saturday of being “the only obstacle” to an agreement that could “allow the release of the hostages”. The Islamist movement says it is still willing to “conclude a serious agreement”, suggesting that Israel’s conditions do not allow it.
All attempts to negotiate a cessation of hostilities have failed. At the end of November, however, a seven-day truce allowed the release of 80 Israeli hostages (and 25 others outside the agreement), in exchange for that of 240 Palestinian prisoners.
An Israeli strike targeted a Hezbollah building in eastern Lebanon on Sunday morning, hours after Iran’s attack on Israel, a pro-Iranian party source and the Israeli army reported.
An Israeli army spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said the Israeli fighters had targeted “a major Hezbollah weapons production site” “deep” in Lebanon, in response to nighttime attacks by the Shiite training.
Hezbollah actually said it launched two salvos of rockets at Israeli military positions in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan. These attacks are part of the continuity of anti-Israeli operations claimed by the Lebanese Islamist group since the start of the conflict in Gaza: daily exchanges of fire pit the Israeli army against Hezbollah, which claims to support Hamas.
Over the past six months, at least 364 people have been killed in Lebanon, mainly Hezbollah fighters but also at least 70 civilians, in cross-border violence, according to a count by AFP. In the north of the Jewish state, 10 soldiers and 8 civilians were killed, according to the army.
The heads of state and government of the G7 (Germany, Canada, United States, France, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, plus the European Union), meeting by videoconference on Sunday, committed to strengthening their “cooperation” with a view to “providing more humanitarian aid to the Palestinians” in the Gaza Strip, according to a joint statement issued by the Italian government, which currently chairs the group.
The Israeli offensive knows no respite in Gaza, where 2.4 million people are threatened with famine, according to the UN. While humanitarian aid has been trickling in for months, Israeli authorities have reported in recent days authorization for a record number of trucks to enter the Palestinian territory. “The increase in aid is not yet tangible,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the United Nations agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, said on Friday on the X network.
