Washington has delayed presenting the outline of a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal due to concerns that Hamas and Israel are not interested in advancing an agreement, according to reports in Israel. The reports say there is a fear that talks could break down if the document is published.
Angered by the absence of a deal, dozens of protesters calling for the release of hostages blocked a central Tel Aviv highway on Friday. Relatives of hostages held in Gaza chained themselves to a bridge while protesters lit fires and set off smoke grenades. A large yellow ribbon, a symbol of the campaign to return the hostages, was painted on the road.
Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, has sent a letter to Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah, thanking him for his “solidarity” and attacks on Israel’s north, and calling the war with Israel “one of the historically respected battles of our people”. The powerful Shia militia, which broadcast details of the communication, has vowed to maintain its cross-border attacks on Israel from south Lebanon as long as the fighting in Gaza continues.
In the latest exchange of fire, a Hizbullah drone struck an IDF base in northern Israel on Friday after two members of Hizbullah’s elite Radwan force were killed in a suspected Israeli drone strike on an apartment deep inside Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.
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Meanwhile, two far-right activists were stopped by Israeli troops while attempting to cross the Gaza border, according to a statement by the army on Friday. They were reportedly trying to set up a civilian outpost for Israeli settlers inside Gaza, the first such attempt of its kind since the start of the war.
The White House said it was seeking more information on Israel’s strike on a school in central Gaza that killed six workers from the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency Unrwa on Wednesday. The Israeli military named nine men it said were Hamas operatives killed in the strike, and claimed that three of the men had doubled as Unrwa workers. Israel claimed the structure was used by Hamas as a command centre.
[ Israeli air strikes kill six UN staff at Gaza school sheltering homelessOpens in new window ]
The UN said the attack had killed at least 18 people, including the Unrwa staff, women and children. It said the attack brought the total number of Unrwa staff killed in the conflict to 220.
The World Health Organisation director general has praised the success of the first phase of a major polio vaccination campaign in the war-ravaged enclave after more than 560,000 children received a first dose.
“This is a massive success amid a tragic daily reality of life across the Gaza Strip,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday.
The vaccination drive, accompanied by “humanitarian pauses” in fighting, came after the first confirmed polio case in 25 years.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began on October 7th. Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 253 hostages seized in the surprise Hamas attack on that day. More than 60 living hostages, and the bodies of about 35 others, are still in Gaza, according to the Israeli authorities.
The UN has warned that the Gaza war has had a devastating impact on Palestinian territories. “The Palestinian economy is in free fall,” said Pedro Manuel Moreno, deputy secretary general of Unctad, the UN trade and development agency. He said production in Gaza has fallen to a sixth of the level recorded before the 11-month war, and also warned of “rapid and alarming economic decline” in the West Bank.
Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Mustafa met the foreign ministers of Ireland, Norway, Slovenia and the European Union in Spain on Friday to discuss steps towards implementing a two-state solution to the crisis. Spanish foreign minister José Manuel Albares said: “We are here to break the endless cycle of violence between Palestinians and Israelis. The way forward is clear – the two-state solution is the only answer.”
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