The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza entered its 12th month on Saturday, but there are no signs of respite for the Palestinian territory, and no hope in sight for the Israeli hostages still held captive.
With both sides sticking to their respective positions, a ceasefire to replace Palestinian prisoners jailed by Israel with those held by Hamas is highly unlikely.
Hamas, whose Oct. 7 attack on Israel sparked the war, is demanding a full Israeli withdrawal, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists troops must remain on the Gaza-Egypt border.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt are mediating in an effort to bring a ceasefire to the war. Officials in Hamas-run Gaza say at least 40,939 people have been killed in the conflict.
According to the United Nations Human Rights Office, most of the dead are women and children.
According to official Israeli figures, Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October killed 1,205 people, most of them civilians, including some hostages who were murdered.
Of the 251 people taken hostage by Palestinian Hamas militants during the offensive, 97 remain in Gaza, 33 of whom the Israeli military says are dead.
The scores were released during a week-long ceasefire in November.
Israel’s announcement last Sunday that the bodies of six hostages, including an American-Israeli citizen, had been recovered sparked grief and anger in Israel.
Marking the anniversary, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), posted on X on Saturday: “Eleven months. Enough is enough. Nobody can take it anymore. Humanity must prevail. Ceasefire now.”
American activist murdered
International pressure to end the war became even more pronounced on Friday with the shooting and killing in the occupied West Bank of Turkish-American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, who was protesting against Israeli settlements in the occupied territory.
Agee’s family called for an independent investigation into her death, saying her life was “needlessly, unlawfully and violently taken by the Israeli military”.
The United Nations human rights office said Israeli forces killed Eigi, 26, by “shooting him in the head.”
Turkey said he was murdered by “Israeli occupation troops”, while the United States described his death as “tragic” and pressured Israel to investigate.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described Israel as a “barbaric” state and urged Muslim countries to confront it, saying: “It is our Islamic duty to stand up to Israel’s state terror. It is a religious duty.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz reacted by saying that Erdogan was “inciting the Turkish people into the fire of hatred and violence for the sake of his Hamas friends”.
About 490,000 people live in Israeli settlements – illegal under international law – on the West Bank, which Israel occupied in 1967, which is illegal under international law.
Since the October 7 Hamas attack, Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed at least 662 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Israel says at least 23 Israelis, including members of the security forces, were killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period.
Egi’s death came on the day Israeli forces returned from a deadly 10-day assault on the West Bank city of Jenin, where AFP journalists reported finding widespread destruction as residents returned home.
This withdrawal has come at a time when there is a confrontation between Israel and America regarding the talks for a ceasefire in the Gaza war.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said “90 per cent of the agreement is in place” and urged Israel and Hamas to finalise a deal. Netanyahu denied this, telling Fox News: “It’s not close.”
Hamas is demanding a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and says it had agreed to a proposal put forward by US President Joe Biden months ago.
Recent violence
Air strikes and shelling lashed Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 17 people, according to civil defence officials, the Palestinian Red Crescent and witnesses, AFP correspondents reported.
The dead included a woman and a child in an air strike north of Gaza city, while another attack targeting a flat in the Bureij camp killed four people.
At least three people were killed and more than 20 injured in an Israeli attack on a school that served as a shelter for displaced people in the Sheikh Radwan area of Gaza City, the civil defense said.
There was also gunfire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, an ally of Hamas.
Hezbollah said it targeted two Israeli positions with Katyusha rockets. Lebanon’s national news agency said Israel carried out air strikes and shelling in several areas in the country’s south.
The Israeli military said it intercepted missiles coming from Lebanon and struck a Hezbollah launch site in southern Lebanon.
Three emergency workers were killed and two others injured in an Israeli attack on a civil defence team fighting a fire in southern Lebanon, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
