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Hamas chief says nearing truce settlement
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Israel bombs Nuseirat camp, 17 killed – Palestinian information company
By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dan Williams
GAZA/JERUSALEM, Nov 21 (Reuters) – The chief of Hamas advised Reuters on Tuesday that the Palestinian militant group was close to a truce settlement with Israel, even because the lethal assault on Gaza continued and rockets have been being fired into Israel.
Hamas officers are “near reaching a truce settlement” with Israel and the group has delivered its response to Qatari mediators, Ismail Haniyeh stated in a press release despatched to Reuters by his aide.
There have been no extra particulars concerning the phrases of the potential settlement.
U.S. President Joe Biden stated on Monday he believed an accord was close to. “We’re nearer now than we have been earlier than,” White Home spokesman John Kirby stated of an settlement geared toward securing the discharge of some hostages held in Gaza and a pause within the combating that might permit a lot wanted help into the besieged enclave.
Hamas took about 240 hostages throughout its Oct. 7 rampage into Israel that killed 1,200 individuals.
Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross (ICRC), met Haniyeh in Qatar on Monday to “advance humanitarian points” associated to the battle, the Geneva-based ICRC stated in a press release. She additionally met individually with Qatari authorities.
The ICRC stated it was not a part of negotiations geared toward releasing the hostages, however as a impartial middleman it was prepared “to facilitate any future launch that the events comply with.”
Speak of an imminent hostage deal has swirled for days. Reuters reported final week that Qatari mediators have been searching for a deal for Hamas and Israel to alternate 50 hostages in return for a three-day ceasefire that might enhance emergency help shipments to Gaza civilians, citing an official briefed on the talks.
Israeli Ambassador to the USA Michael Herzog stated on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that he hoped for an settlement “within the coming days” whereas Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani stated that the remaining sticking factors have been “very minor.”
A deal has appeared shut earlier than.
“Delicate negotiations like this could crumble on the final minute,” White Home deputy nationwide safety adviser Jon Finer advised NBC’s “Meet the Press” program on Sunday. “Nothing is agreed till every thing is agreed.”
Hamas’ raid on Oct. 7, the deadliest day in Israel’s 75-year-old historical past, prompted Israel to invade the Palestinian territory to focus on Hamas.
Since then, Gaza’s Hamas-run authorities stated at the very least 13,300 Palestinians have been killed, together with at the very least 5,600 youngsters and three,550 girls, by unrelenting Israeli bombardment.
Hamas stated on its Telegram account on Monday that it had launched a barrage of missiles in direction of Tel Aviv. Witnesses additionally reported rockets being fired at central Israel.
HOSPITALS AT RISK
The Palestinian information company WAFA stated on Tuesday at the very least 17 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombing of the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza at midnight.
There was no quick remark from Israel.
Gaza’s well being ministry stated on Monday that at the very least 12 Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded by firing into the Indonesian Hospital complicated, which was encircled by Israeli tanks.
Well being officers stated 700 sufferers together with workers have been below Israeli fireplace.
WAFA stated the power within the northeast Gaza city of Beit Lahia, funded by Indonesian organisations, had been hit by artillery rounds. Hospital workers denied there have been any armed militants on the premises.
World Well being Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated he was “appalled” by the assault that he too stated had killed 12 individuals, together with sufferers, citing unspecified stories.
The Israeli Defence Forces stated troops had fired again at fighters within the hospital whereas taking “quite a few measures to minimise hurt” to non-combatants.
Like all different well being services within the northern half of Gaza, the Indonesian Hospital has largely ceased operations however remains to be sheltering sufferers, workers and displaced residents.
Twenty-eight prematurely born infants evacuated from Gaza’s greatest hospital, Al Shifa, have been taken into Egypt for pressing remedy on Monday.
Israeli forces seized Shifa final week to seek for what they stated was a tunnel community constructed by Hamas beneath the hospital. Lots of of sufferers, medical workers and displaced individuals left Shifa on the weekend, with medical doctors saying they have been ejected by troops and Israel saying the departures have been voluntary.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Idrees Ali and Raju Gopalakrishnan; Modifying by Cynthia Osterman & Simon Cameron-Moore)
