Hostilities between Israel’s military and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas continue to rage today in the Gaza Strip, despite “first” signs of a new ceasefire and the release of hostages as the war heads into four months.

For the umpteenth night, eyewitnesses spoke of heavy Israeli shelling in the central and southern parts of the Gaza Strip, mainly in the sector of Khan Younis, the second largest city in the small area, in recent weeks the focus of Israeli ground operations. The Hamas Health Ministry counted at least 105 dead civilians from last night to this morning across the region.

The Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galland went to Khan Younis to meet with soldiers as local officials spoke of renewed fighting near Nasser and Amal hospitals and the UN for tens of thousands of Palestinians forced to flee for safety.

“This war requires national resilience and determination and we will persevere until the completion of our missions,” he said, assuring his men that “things are much more difficult for Hamas,” which he said had suffered heavy losses, “10,000 terrorists dead and another 10,000 wounded who have been put out of action, its capacity has been dealt a severe blow.”

Diplomatic efforts are continuing to put in place a new truce, longer than the week-long one in late November that allowed the release of more than a hundred hostages held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for nearly 300 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.

Two weeks;

After weekend talks in Paris involving CIA Director William Burns and representatives of the governments of Qatar, Egypt and Israel, a new proposal for a truce was presented to the leadership of Hamas, whose leader, Ismail Haniya, who based in Doha, the capital of Qatar, expected in Egypt.

According to an AFP source in Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement is considering the proposal, which includes three phases. In the first, a six-week ceasefire will be implemented and 200 to 300 Palestinian prisoners will be released in exchange for 35 to 40 hostages held in Gaza, while 200 to 300 trucks of humanitarian aid will enter the enclave every day.

This proposal has been “approved by the Israeli side,” Qatar’s diplomatic spokesman, Majid al-Ansari, said yesterday. “We received a first positive confirmation from Hamas,” he added. He expressed hope “within the next two weeks we will be able to announce good news”.

However, an AFP source in Hamas countered that there is still no consensus on the proposal eithernot even about Mr. Haniya’s schedule of contacts in Egypt, and added that Qatar’s announcement was “hasty and false.”

First the hostages, then Hamas?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under intense pressure, on the one hand from families of hostages, to return their own, and on the other from members of his government who say they will reject any deal they consider too generous to the Palestinians.

Last night protesters gathered again in Tel Aviv to demand a deal that would allow the hostages to be released.

“The only way is to make a deal,” said Moran Cher Katzenstein, 41, then “we’ll have time to deal with Hamas, the Gaza government (…) but first of all we have to deal with the hostages ».

About 250 people were abducted and taken to the Gaza Strip on October 7. More than a hundred were released when a week-long truce was declared in late November. According to the Israeli authorities, 132 still remain in the Palestinian enclave, however 27 are considered by the army to be dead.

The attack killed 1,163 people, most of them civilians, according to a more recent AFP tally based on official statements from the authorities.

In retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack, Israel vowed to “wipe out” the Palestinian Islamist movement in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, and its military operations have since killed at least 27,019 people, the vast majority of them women and children, according to with the Hamas Health Ministry.

Israel-West tensions?

The war in the Gaza Strip further escalated the tension in the occupied West Bank, as well as on a regional scale, between Israel and its allies, mainly the USA, on the one hand, and the “axis of resistance”, adjacent to the Iran, which includes, in addition to Hamas, organizations such as the Lebanese Hezbollah, Iraqi paramilitary groups and the Yemeni Houthis.

Washington, although a key supporter of Israel, yesterday announced — rare — sanctions against extremist settlers accused of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, with US President Joe Biden calling the situation “intolerable”.

“These actions (by certain West Bank settlers) threaten US foreign policy objectives, including the achievement of the two-state solution” and thus “threaten US national security,” an executive order signed by Mr Biden said. .

Reacting, as mediators Qatar and Egypt try to convince Hamas to commit to declaring a new truce, Israel’s government called “extraordinary measures” against Jewish settlers “unnecessary.”

Another source of tension between Israel and Western governments: the Israeli ambassador was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belgium after bombings that completely “destroyed” the offices of the Belgian development agency (ENABEL) in Gaza City, the head of the country’s diplomacy announced, speaking for “unacceptable” action.