The truce in Gaza could be close: international mediators are seeking an agreement and avoiding an offensive on Rafah

International mediators on Wednesday stepped up their efforts to reach a truce agreement between Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where The UN fears a “massacre” if the Israeli army launched an operation in the city of Rafah.

According to the Health Ministry of Hamas, which governs the Strip, 103 people have been killed in Israeli night bombings in the last 24 hours in the besieged Palestinian territories. devastated by more than four months of war.

Targeted attacks in particular the cities of Khan Yunis and Rafahin the south, near the closed border with Egypt, transformed into the last refuge for 1.5 million Palestinians, according to the UN, the vast majority displaced by war and living in extreme conditions.

From Tuesday, Egypt received representatives from the United States, the main support of Israel, and of Qatar, where the leader of Hamas lives.

The goal of the negotiation a truce that provides for the release of the hostages kidnapped in Gaza on October 7 during an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamic movement on Israeli territory.

The head of the Mossad, the Israeli secret service, David Barnea, participated in the talks together with the director of the CIA, William Burns, the Prime Minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdelrahman Al Thani, and Egyptian officials, AlQahera News television reported. … to Egyptian intelligence.

The Israeli delegation then left Cairo, according to Israeli media, but Negotiations will continue “for the next three days”he told AlQahera News on Tuesday.

A Hamas delegation is expected to travel to Cairo, probably this Wednesday, according to a source from the Palestinian movement, considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

From the West Bank, Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas’ rival Fatah party, urged the Islamic movement in power in Gaza to “quickly close” an agreement that allows the release of Palestinian prisoners and avoids “catastrophic consequences”.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, highly critical of the Israeli offensive in Gaza, will be received on Wednesday in Cairo by his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.

“We are working intensively with Egypt and Qatar on a proposal for the release of the hostages,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday.

According to Israel, of the approximately 250 people abducted on October 7, 130 are still detained in Gaza, 29 of whom are believed to be dead.

A week-long respite in November allowed the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

This Wednesday almost a hundred relatives of the hostages went to The Hague to present their testimony a complaint against Hamas for “crimes against humanity” before the International Criminal Court (ICC), according to its representatives.

The war was sparked by an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants in southern Israel, where around 1,160 people, mostly civilians, were killed, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.

In retaliation, Israel promised to “destroy” Hamas and its military offensive has caused 28,576 deaths in Gaza, the vast majority civilians, according to the latest balance sheet from the Gaza Ministry of Health this Wednesday.

Since the beginning of the war, In Gaza, entire neighborhoods were razed to the ground by the incessant Israeli bombings and 1.7 million people were displacedaccording to the UN.

The Gaza Strip, an overpopulated territory of 362 km2besieged by Israel and mired in a serious humanitarian crisis, it has around 2.4 million inhabitants.

Rafah, Hamas’s “last bastion”.

Rafah is the last urban center where the Israeli army has not yet penetrated and the main entry point for humanitarian aid, insufficient to meet the needs of a population threatened in the middle of winter by famine and epidemics, according to the UN.

In early February, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the army to prepare an offensive on Rafah. the “last bastion” of Hamas, In his opinion. However, on Sunday he assured that Israel “A safe passage” would be opened so that the population could leave the city, without specifying where.

The United States, Israel’s great ally, He said he opposed an offensive against Rafah if there are no guarantees for the safety of civilians, while UN humanitarian affairs chief Martin Griffiths warned that “military operations in Rafah could lead to a massacre”.

“If they ask me to return to Gaza City, I will only do so if it is safe,” said a mother, Ahlam Abu Assi, displaced with her family in Rafah. “Otherwise I’d rather die here. They’re already starving there.”

With information from AFP