Later today, indirect negotiations are expected to resume in Doha with the aim of concluding a cease-fire agreement in Gaza.
Against the background of the bloody attack by Jewish settlers on a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank yesterday, which caused a general outcry — even from the Israeli political leadership.
The attack in the community of Jit, between the cities of Nablus and Qalqilya, killed one person and seriously injured another; the US presidency condemned it, while Israel's president, Isaac Herzog, called it a "pogrom ».
"I strongly condemn tonight's pogrom in Samaria," Mr. Herzog said via X, using the biblical name for the northern part of what is now the West Bank. The White House National Security Council also strongly criticized the "unacceptable" attacks.
According to the Israeli army, "dozens of Israeli civilians, some masked", rushed into the village "set fire to vehicles and infrastructure and threw stones and Molotov cocktails".
Soldiers and members of the border guard who arrived "removed the Israeli citizens" from the village, the spokesman continued, clarifying that "an Israeli citizen involved in the violent riots was brought in and handed over to the Israeli police for questioning."
According to the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Kander Sanda, 23, who was hit "by settlers' bullets", is dead. Another Palestinian was hit by a bullet in the chest area and is hospitalized in serious condition, according to the same source.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "takes seriously the riots that took place tonight in the village of Jit", according to a statement from his services, which assured that "those responsible for any illegal action will be arrested and brought to justice".
The leader of Likud, Israel's right-wing faction, has been ruling since December 2022 with the support of far-right parties, which demand not only settlement expansion in the West Bank, but the annexation of all of the Palestinian territory held by Israel from in 1967.
"The agitators (…) have nothing to do with the settlement and the settlers," far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a grand architect of the expansion of Jewish settlement in the West Bank from December 2022, assured via X, especially after the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
"They are criminals who must be dealt with by the authorities (…) with the full weight of the law," he added.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallad also "strongly condemned" the attack.
After the war broke out in the Gaza Strip, triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas' military arm on the southern part of the Israeli territory on October 7, violence escalated even further in the West Bank.
At least 633 Palestinians have been killed in that area by fire from either the Israeli armed forces or armed settlers, according to an AFP tally based on official Palestinian data; while at least 18 Israelis, including soldiers, border guards and civilians, have also been killed, in Palestinian attacks or military operations in the Palestinian Authority, according to official Israeli data.
The settlement of the West Bank by Israel is often denounced, as a violation of international law, by the UN, which ranks the settlements as the main obstacles to achieving a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
In Doha, Qatar's foreign ministry confirmed that talks aimed at declaring a ceasefire would continue today.
The mediators — Qatar, Egypt and the US — remain "firmly committed to continuing their efforts to agree a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip that will facilitate the release of hostages and allow the largest possible amount of humanitarian aid to enter" in the enclave, said a representative of the emirate's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
CIA Director William Burns and the heads of Israel's Mossad (espionage) and Shin Bet (counterintelligence) are present at the talks. Hamas has not officially, but last night its senior official, Osama Hamdan, told AFP that the movement had informed the mediators of its positions.
If the talks are to "set a timetable to implement what was presented and accepted by Hamas, then we will participate," he explained. "If the mediators manage to force (Israel) to accept it, we will participate (in the negotiations). But, so far, there is nothing new."
"Any agreement must result in a total ceasefire, a complete withdrawal (of the Israeli army) from Gaza (and) the return of the displaced" to their homes, Hussam Badran, a senior Hamas official, said last night in Doha.
The talks in Doha are based on the proposal presented on May 31 by US President Biden. In its first phase, it envisages a six-week ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip and the release of Hamas hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinians held in Israeli detention centers.
Benjamin Netanyahu declares almost daily that he will continue the war until Hamas is eliminated.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, which the US and EU designate as a terrorist organization after its attack on southern sectors of the Israeli territory on October 7, in which they lost 1.198 people lost their lives, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data. Of the 251 people kidnapped during the attack, 111 are still being held hostage in the Gaza Strip, but at least 39 are presumed dead by the Israeli military.
Israel's large-scale military retaliatory operations have since killed at least 40.005 people in the enclave, according to the latest figures from Hamas' health ministry.
The US believes that a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip would prevent an Iranian attack on Israel, even as Tehran has vowed to avenge the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniya in the Iranian capital on July 31, which it blamed on Israel.
The risk of a major military escalation across the Middle East region has been magnified following the killing of Ismail Haniya and that, a few hours earlier, on the evening of July 30, of Hezbollah's military wing leader Fouad Shukr in a bombing in a southern suburb of Beirut that confirmed that it was fired by Israel's military.
Source: iefimerida.gr