Not the time for a ceasefire in Gaza, says US, with Hamas still holding hostages
Some Palestinians returning to north of Gaza owing to lack of food; Emmanuel Macron visits Israel
Tue 24 Oct 2023
First published on Mon 23 Oct 2023
The US has said now is not the time for a ceasefire between Israel
and Hamas, as the UN reports that some Palestinians who fled their
homes in the north of Gaza have returned due to a lack of food and
shelter in the south.
The White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told CNN on Monday that Israel still had “work to do to go after Hamas
leadership”, echoing comments from the US president, Joe Biden, that
any discussions of a ceasefire could only take place if Hamas freed all
its hostages in Gaza.
The
statement from the White House was at odds with comments from UN and EU
officials who on Monday called for a humanitarian pause in fighting so
that aid could be delivered into Gaza.
France’s
president, Emmanuel Macron, was expected to express solidarity with
Israel and call for the “preservation” of Gaza’s civilian population
during a visit to Israel on Tuesday. After meeting relatives of
French-Israeli citizens killed in Hamas’s attack on 7 October, he was to
hold talks with Israeli leaders and Palestinian officials in the West
Bank.
The families of two Israeli hostages
released by Hamas on Monday night celebrated their return. Yokheved
Lifshitz, 85, and Nurit Yitzhak, 79, were reunited with their families
at a Tel Aviv hospital, where medical staff said both women appeared in
good health.
Lifshitz told the Ynet news site
that Hamas had “schooled” Israel in its murderous assault. She said she
did not know where she had been held in Gaza. “They loaded me on to a
motorcycle … with one terrorist holding me from the front and the other
from behind so that I wouldn’t fall. We crossed the border fence into
the strip, and at first they held me in the town of Abasan al-Kabir.
After that, I don’t know where I was taken.”
Freed Israeli hostage filmed extending hand to Hamas militant in video released by group – video
Qatar
and Egypt helped to broker the release of the two women. Israeli media
reported that the US and Qatar were trying to broker a deal in which 50
dual nationals held by Hamas would be released.
Meanwhile,
Israeli police reportedly detained a prominent Arab Israeli actor,
Maisa Abd Elhadi, for allegedly posting images in support of Hamas.
Israeli media said Abd Elhadi, who appeared in the TV show Baghdad Central and the film World War Z, was arrested on suspicion of incitement and support for terrorism.
Concern
about the plight of people in Gaza intensified. The director of the UN
agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, Thomas White, said
shortages of shelter, food and drinking water in the south had forced
some residents to return to their homes in the north.
Israel
delivered sweeping evacuation orders for almost half of Gaza’s 2.3
million people on 13 October. The UN estimates that almost two-thirds of
Gaza’s population have been displaced over the last two weeks.
“People
have left everything in the north … they have come to the south where
they are struggling to find shelter, food is scarce, many people are
having to drink unpotable water, so the situation in the south is dire,”
White told the BBC.
Red Crescent workers sort aid newly arrived in Gaza. Photograph: Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
The
Israeli military bombed a refugee camp in Gaza’s north late on Monday,
reports said. The IDF said the strike targeted a staging ground for
Hamas. Palestinian media reported that five people were killed.
Gaza’s health authority, which is run by Hamas, has said at least 5,087 people have been killed in Israel’s two-week bombardment, many of them children.
The
conflict broke out after the Palestinian militants attacked southern
Israeli communities on 7 October, killing 1,400 people and taking 222
hostages into the strip.
On Sunday it emerged that the US had pressed Israel to delay its expected ground assault on Gaza to allow time for the release of more hostages and the delivery of more aid.
The
Maariv newspaper said the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,
and his generals were at odds over when to launch a ground invasion.
Quoting unnamed senior Israeli officials, the daily said the Israeli
leader was delaying it while there was still a possibility of returning
the captives, and that the “initial phrase” of the Israeli offensive –
airstrikes – was “not yet exhausted”.
Netanyahu’s
office put out a statement on Monday night denying the reports of
friction, saying: “The prime minister, the defence minister and the IDF
chief of staff are working in close and full cooperation … there is
total and mutual trust.”
Israel pounded
hundreds of targets in Gaza from the air on Monday, with a military
spokesperson suggesting there was no intention of curbing its strikes on
the densely populated area.
“The path is a
path of unrelenting attacks, damaging Hamas everywhere and in every way,
said the Israeli chief of staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, adding: “We are
well prepared for the ground operations.”
US
officials speaking to the New York Times said the Biden administration
was concerned that Israeli forces did not have a clear military plan of
action to achieve their goal of eradicating Hamas.
The
Pentagon has sent military advisers, including a marine corps general
versed in urban warfare, to Israel to aid in its war planning and has
sent air defence systems to the Middle East ahead of the anticipated
ground assault into Gaza.