ongoing updates
01:02 – Judge Julia Sabutinda was appointed Vice President of the International Court of Justice
The Ugandan judge Julia Sabutinda, who stood by Israel in the lawsuit against her on behalf of South Africa – has been appointed the vice president of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and will hold this position for 3 years
PRESS RELEASE: Judge Julia Sebutinde (#Uganda) was today elected Vice-President of the #ICJ by her peers, for a term of three years pic.twitter.com/H277yJeUFs
— CIJ_ICJ (@CIJ_ICJ) February 6, 2024
00:34 – The US Secretary of State in Lincoln Landed in Israel
Anthony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, arrived in Israel ahead of meetings he will hold tomorrow with Prime Minister Netanyahu and other senior members of the War Cabinet, with Hamas’ response to the hostage deal at the heart of the matter. “There is still a lot of work to be done, but we continue to believe that an agreement is possible and in fact essential.” , Blinken said earlier last night at a press conference in Doha. “We will continue to work relentlessly to achieve this.”
23:48 – Reports in Syria about an Israeli attack in the Homs area
22:51 – In Israel, the answer of Hamas is being examined. Netanyahu will have to decide in the next day
Entire parts of Hamas’ answer are “non-starters”, and do not allow progress at all. You can learn about this both from Hamas’s official announcement and from Biden’s statement that Hamas’ answer is “Over the top”.
Tonight’s attempt will be to decipher if there are parts of the Hamas answer that can be “held on to” in order to nevertheless give the green light to continue the dialogue with the mediators, and at the same time parts that can be made to get Hamas to “get off” as part of entering into such a dialogue.
In the next day, Prime Minister Netanyahu will decide: Should we reject Hamas’ answer and tell the mediators that the lines drawn by the terrorist organization do not allow entering into negotiations? It is not impossible that there will be an official announcement from Israel outright rejecting an answer that requires it to end the war.
22:34 – Report in the Wall Street Journal: Israel estimates that up to 50 of the abductees held by Hamas may not be alive, according to Egyptian sources who revealed details of the negotiations
22:20 – Senior Hamas official: “Netanyahu is trying to market a victory, this is to preserve his government”
A senior Hamas official told Reuters that Prime Minister Netanyahu “is trying to make everyone believe that he will bring an achievement or a victory, and this is to preserve his government.” The senior Hamas official also referred to the terrorist organization’s response to the proposal for the hostage deal: “It took us a while to respond because many of the issues there were unclear and vague . We intend to release the largest possible number of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.”
22:02 – Senior Israeli officials met secretly with a senior official in the Palestinian Authority
Tonight we published for the first time that during the day the head of the Shin Bet, the head of the National Security Council and the coordinator of government operations in the territories met secretly with Hossein al-Sheikh, a senior member of the Palestinian Authority. At the meeting held in Tel Aviv, the four discussed “calming the area” before the month of Ramadan. To the full article
21:38 – Senior Hamas official: “We intend to release the largest number of prisoners”
Senior Hamas official Razi Hamed told Al Jazeera after the terrorist organization’s reply: “Many issues in the outline were unclear and vague, so it took us time to respond to them. We asked for international guarantees for its implementation on the part of Israel. We intend to release the largest possible number of Palestinian prisoners from the Israeli prisons”.
21:35 – The Mossad: “Hamas’ answer has been forwarded, the details are being studied in depth”
The Prime Minister’s Office responded on behalf of the Mossad for Intelligence and Special Tasks: “Hamas’ response was forwarded by the Qatari mediator to the Mossad and its details are being studied in depth by all parties involved in the negotiations.”
20:39 – Biden on Hamas’s answer: “a little exaggerated”
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, referred to the Hamas answer that was published earlier, saying that “the answer is a bit exaggerated, but there is some movement towards a deal”.
20:28 – The IDF spokesman reveals: “More than 150 million dollars were transferred from Iran to Hamas in six years, we found documents”
IDF spokesman Hagari reveals in a statement: “We found official Hamas documents from 2020 detailing the funds transferred from Iran to Hamas in the years 2014-2020 – more than 150 million dollars were transferred from Iran to Hamas.” He also informed that “a notification was given to 31 families whose loved ones were murdered”.
Money envelopes delivered to the leader of Hamas Photo: IDF spokesman Did you find a language mistake?