Hamas chief says the group is close to a truce agreement with Israel

GAZA – The chief of Hamas told Reuters on Nov 21 that the Palestinian armed group was near a truce agreement with Israel.

Hamas officials are “close to reaching a truce agreement” with Israel and the group has delivered its response to Qatari mediators, Mr Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement sent to Reuters by his aide.

There were no more details about the terms of the potential agreement.

But a Hamas official told Al Jazeera TV that negotiations were centred on how long the truce would last, arrangements for the delivery of aid into Gaza, and the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

Both sides would free women and children and details will be announced by Qatar, which is mediating in the negotiations, said the official, Mr Issat el Reshiq.

Hamas took about 240 hostages during its Oct 7 attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people.

Ms Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in Qatar on Nov 20 met Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to “advance humanitarian issues” related to the conflict, the Geneva-based ICRC said in a statement. She also separately met the Qatari authorities.

The ICRC said it was not part of negotiations aimed at releasing the hostages. But as a neutral intermediary, it was ready “to facilitate any future release that the parties agree to”, it said.

Talk of an imminent hostage deal has been swirling for days.

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Reuters reported last week that Qatari mediators had been seeking a deal for Hamas and Israel to exchange 50 hostages in return for a three-day ceasefire that would boost emergency aid shipments to Gaza civilians, citing an official briefed on the talks.

Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog said on ABC’s This Week on Nov 19 that he hoped for an agreement “in the coming days”.

Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said the remaining sticking points were “very minor”.

US President Joe Biden and other officials said on Nov 20 he believed an accord was near, but an agreement has appeared close before.

“Sensitive negotiations like this can fall apart at the last minute,” White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told NBC’s Meet The Press programme on Nov 19. “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.”

Hamas’ raid on Oct 7 prompted Israel to invade Gaza to target the group.

Since then, Gaza’s Hamas-run government said at least 13,300 Palestinians have been killed by unrelenting Israeli bombardment.

The Israeli military’s deadly assault on Gaza City continued on Nov 20 even as talk of reaching a hostage deal grew louder.

Hamas said on its Telegram account that day that it had launched a barrage of missiles towards Tel Aviv. Witnesses also reported rockets being fired at central Israel.

Palestinian children look on the rubble of a building destroyed during Israeli strikes on Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip, on Nov 20, 2023. PHOTO: AFP

Hospitals at risk

The Palestinian news agency Wafa said on Nov 20 that at least 17 Palestinians were killed in Israeli bombing of the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza at midnight.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Nov 20 that at least 12 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded by firing into the Indonesian Hospital, which was encircled by Israeli tanks.

Health officials said 700 patients along with staff were under Israeli fire.

Wafa said the facility in the north-east Gaza town of Beit Lahia, funded by Indonesian organisations, had been hit by artillery rounds. Hospital staff denied there were any armed militants on the premises.

World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “appalled” by the attack that he too said had killed 12 people, including patients, citing unspecified reports.

The Israeli Defence Forces said troops had fired back at fighters in the hospital, while taking “numerous measures to minimise harm” to non-combatants.

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Like all other health facilities in the northern half of Gaza, the Indonesian Hospital has largely ceased operations but is still sheltering patients, staff and displaced residents.

Twenty-eight premature babies evacuated on Nov 19 from Gaza’s biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, were taken into Egypt for urgent treatment the next day.

Israeli forces seized Al-Shifa last week to search for what they said was a tunnel network belonging to Hamas built underneath.

Tents and shelters used by displaced Palestinians at the yard of Al-Shifa hospital during the Israeli ground operation around the hospital, on Nov 12, 2023. PHOTO: REUTERS

Hundreds of patients, medical staff and displaced people left Al-Shifa at the weekend, with doctors saying they were ejected by troops and Israel saying the departures were voluntary.

The United Nations says two-thirds of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been made homeless.

“We are witnessing a killing of civilians that is unparalleled and unprecedented in any conflict since I became secretary-general,” UN chief Antonio Guterres, who took office on Jan 1, 2017, told reporters. REUTERS