2023-11-24 09:01:38
BarcelonaAfter 48 days of war, almost 15,000 dead under the bombs and 1.5 million displaced, the ceasefire in Gaza came into force this Friday morning. A temporary truce that, for now, is expected to last just four days and that, according to Israel and Hamas, should be used to release 50 Israeli hostages in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners. The suspension of attacks, which could be extended to a maximum of ten days if Palestinian militias release more kidnapped Israeli citizens – estimated to be around 240 – will also serve to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.
The first trucks of a new humanitarian aid convoy have, in fact, already begun to enter the Palestinian enclave through the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt, according to Egyptian television Al-Qahera News. The chain showed live how a total of 60 vehicles crossed the pass, where there were also 17 ambulances waiting their turn. According to the Egyptian government, 130,000 liters of fuel and four gas trucks per day will enter the Strip during the truce, as well as around 200 humanitarian aid trucks.
The handover of a first group of 13 hostages, all of them women and children, is expected to take place at four in the afternoon (local time), as announced on Thursday by Qatar, one of the parties that mediated to achieve the truce The Palestinian prisoners, on the other hand, would not begin to leave the prisons until half a hundred Israelis had returned to their homes. Tel Aviv published a list of up to 300 candidates to be released from its prisons, the vast majority of whom are minors, but it is not clear who will be released or when they will be released.
Meanwhile, many displaced Gazans along the Strip are taking advantage of the bombing halt to return home, according to Al Jazeera. “We can recover a little bit of our soul,” explains Khaled Loz, one of the witnesses collected by the chain, adding that the first thing he will try to do is sleep: “It’s the first thing I want to do. I’m tired of the constant bombings,” he explains . But the feeling of some relief at the end of the bombing could be short-lived. The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, already warned from the first moment that after the truce the war will continue until Hamas is eliminated. A mission for which, despite international pressure, the army has killed thousands of creatures.
Before the truce began, in fact, Israel intensified its bombing of the Strip. This Thursday the authorities in Gaza reported more than 200 deaths in 24 hours and the attacks continued tonight and well into the official beginning of the truce. This is evidenced by a video by Almog Boker, a reporter for the Israeli channel Channel 13, where you can see Israeli soldiers celebrating the dropping of bombs on the Palestinian enclave during the last hour before the ceasefire came into effect on fire
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