Hamas announces: “Thirty Shin Bet officers among the hostages. Yahya Sinwar still rules Gaza”
The Israeli army is just waiting for the government’s green light to invade Rafah. Israel’s media is certain of this. The ground operation will begin “very early”, the broadcaster reported Kan TV citing two American officials. And precisely to discuss the army’s imminent offensive in the southernmost city of the Gaza Strip, the head of the Shin Bet security agency and the IDF chief of staff were in Egypt on Wednesday. According to the news site Axios, which cites three senior Israeli officials Egypt (which Rafah borders), warned Israel against entering the city where more than a million displaced Gaza civilians (nearly half the inhabitants of the entire Strip) reside. The site Walla also reports that the Egyptians are very worried that an operation in Rafah could lead to an influx of tens of thousands of Palestinians into their territory and also by possible border violations that could endanger their security. Senior Egyptian officials have made clear in public and in closed-door talks with Israel that such a scenario would lead to a breakdown in relations with the Jewish state and could even endanger the peace agreement between the two countries.
The start of the operation would however be imminent. For Haaretz the idea is to divide it into phases starting from the evacuation of civilians in the tent cities set up near Rafah and Khan Yunis. The plan for the Rafah operation would be presented to American officials and other agencies in the region. Thus the appeals of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights seem to fall on deaf ears, Volker Türkwhich on Tuesday renewed its warning against the large-scale Israeli offensive in Rafah.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Health Ministry announced on Wednesday that 34,262 people have been killed in the Strip since the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement began on October 7. At least 79 more killings were recorded in the space of 24 hours, according to a statement from the ministry, which also reported that 77,229 people had been wounded in 201 days of war.
UNRWA: “310 aid trucks entered, a record since October 7”
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees Unrwa, Philippe Lazzarini, said that “more than 310 aid trucks” entered the Gaza Strip yesterday, noting that this was the highest number since October 7. “This shows that when there is a will there is a way: now we need to support it and increase it further,” Lazzarini wrote on his X account adding that “trucks should include both commercial and humanitarian supplies so that markets can reopen ” in the Palestinian enclave. The famine in the northern Gaza Strip “can only be avoided with a significant and uninterrupted supply” of aid “including throughUnrwa“, added the head of the UN agency.
The issue of humanitarian aid is of fundamental importance in the enclave.
The entire population of the Gaza Strip, with its 2.2 million inhabitants, has become the most serious food crisis in the history of the food security scale. As of December 2023, it has identified over a quarter of the population, i.e. 600 thousand people in ‘Catastrophe’ conditions (level 5 of theIntegrated Food Security Phase Classification) and at risk of famine. This was established by the 2024 Global Report on Food Crises Food Security Information Network. Food crises have increased alarmingly in conflict hotspots, Palestine but also in Sudan, on which “immediate action” is needed.
Hamas: “30 Shin Bet officers among the hostages. Sinwar rules Gaza”
On the “front of the hostages and the fighting situation, Hamas appears to hold”30 Shin Bet officers and agents who were captured on October 7 and are under extremely high security. They are far from Israel and impossible to reach” This was stated by a senior official of the Islamist party in an interview with the London newspaper Al-Arabi Al-Jadid of Qatar. The official added that the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar he continues to command the organization in Gaza and is said to have even emerged from the tunnels in which he was hiding to patrol the battle zones on the surface. The Hamas source also added that the number of living hostages is significantly higher than 20, although the exact number cannot be said. Furthermore, Hamas offered to release 40 hostages in the first phase of the deal and not 20 as reported in Israel. The Hamas official said that the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu keeps the identities of some soldiers in the hands of Hamas under a veil of secrecy. In his opinion, “the Israeli government lies to the hostages’ families and manipulates them in an attempt to change public opinion and shirk its duty to release the hostages“.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan © Imagoeconomica
Erdogan: “We are in the front row for the hostage exchange”
Hamas also released a video showing the 23-year-old hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin alive. The young man has dual Israeli-American citizenship. In the nearly three-minute video, Goldberg-Polin, who is missing his left forearm from the elbow down, identifies himself and asks the Israeli government to bring him home. It is not specified when the video was filmed but the young man claims to have been held prisoner for “almost 200 days“, suggesting that it was done recently. The 23-year-old was kidnapped on October 7 by Hamas while he was at a music festival near Reim. He lost his forearm to grenades thrown by militiamen inside the shelter where he had sought shelter together to other young people. In the videos released after the attack you could see them taking him away, clutching his stump.
Regarding the hot topic of hostages, Turkey has said it is at the forefront of mediating a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas and is determined to obtain results. The Turkish president declared this today Recep Tayyip Erdoganin a press conference with his German colleague Frank Walter Steinmeier visiting Ankara. “Despite all the difficulties we are fighting and making efforts to reach an agreement on the exchange of prisoners and we want to succeed“, said Erdogan, who then invited his German colleague to change his perspective on the war in the Gaza Strip.”Most of the victims are innocent women, elderly people and children. We are faced with a bleak scenario. Gaza has been destroyed and Germany cannot look the other way. Unfortunately, the entire West is with Israel, but Turkey has taken a clear position: we will continue to work for a ceasefire“Erdogan said.
Dad: “Israel and Palestine are two free states with good relations'”
In the meantime, a new appeal for peace and a political solution comes from the Vatican.
“Israel and Palestine are two free states with good relations”, he underlined Pope francesco at the end of the general audience renewing his appeal for peace. “My thoughts – said Bergoglio – it goes to the tormented Ukraine, to Palestine, to Israel, to Myanmar, which are at war, and to many other countries. War is always a defeat in which those who gain the most are the weapons manufacturers. Please let us pray for peace. We pray for Gaza, there is a lot of suffering there in the war, we pray for peace between Palestine and Israel: that they are two free states with good relations. We pray for peace”.
Cover photo © Imagoeconomica
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