Hamas: ceasefire in the Strip? “We will respect the Hague truce if…”

Israeli tanks opened fire on crowds of Palestinians queuing in Kuwait Square in Gaza City, waiting to receive humanitarian aid. At least 20 people died and 150 were injured, but the toll could worsen given the critical conditions of many of the victims, who were admitted to Al-Shifa hospital, where medical supplies and doctors are scarce. This was reported by the Hamas-led Ministry of Health of the Strip, according to which “the Israeli occupation committed a new massacre against thousands of hungry mouths waiting for help”. Civil protection spokesman Mahmoud Basal said rescuers were unable to reach the site of the attack, which was blocked by Israeli forces. The Tel Aviv army said it was investigating the incident, while the National and Islamic Forces, a coalition of main Palestinian factions, accused it of “war crimes” and “perpetuating ethnic cleansing and the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip ”. The International Criminal Court of Justice in The Hague will decide tomorrow, Friday, January 26, on the issue of the accusation of genocide, in the case brought by South Africa.

Hamas has said it will accept the ceasefire in the Strip if that is what the court decides and if Israel also respects it, and that it will release all prisoners if Tel Aviv releases the Palestinians currently detained. As Arab media revealed a new truce proposal that Qatar is working on, the Washington Post reported that US President Joe Biden will send CIA Director William Burns to Europe in the coming days to broker a deal between Israel and Hamas that leads to the release of all hostages still in Gaza and a ceasefire. Burns is expected to meet with Israeli and Egyptian intelligence chiefs David Barnea and Abbas Kamel and Qatari Prime Minister Al Thani.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, after the stopover in Lebanon, went to Israel, where he met with President Isaac Herzog and his counterpart Israel Katz. He then visited his counterpart Riyad al-Maliki and the president of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, in Ramallah, in the West Bank, and highlighted Italy’s commitment against anti-Semitism at Yad Vashem, the Shoah Museum in Jerusalem, before to have a face-to-face conversation. face-to-face meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netnayahu. During each bilateral meeting, Tajani assured to promote the two-people, two-state solution. “The Israeli counterpart is certainly not enthusiastic about this proposal at the moment”, admitted Tajani, “I understand, because they are at war and even on the internal front it is difficult to be able to talk about this hypothesis. The ANP is more supportive, and Abu Mazen, who I met. But we must not give up. This is the solution that concerns the future.”