Gaza:

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Tuesday that a cease-fire deal with Israel was in sight, raising hopes that dozens of people held over the October 7 attacks could be released.

There was no immediate reaction from Israel on the status of efforts to negotiate to secure the release of an estimated 240 detainees captured during Hamas’s fierce offensive. Most of the hostages are Israeli citizens.

Only a handful of people have been released, having been freed by Israeli troops or their bodies recovered.

“We are close to reaching a ceasefire agreement,” Haniyeh said, according to a statement sent by his office to AFP.

According to the Palestinian government, more than 13,300 people have been killed in the war, including thousands of children.

Speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, Hamas and Islamic Jihad sources confirmed that their groups had agreed to the terms of a ceasefire agreement.

The temporary agreement includes a five-day cease-fire on the ground and a limit on Israeli air operations in southern Gaza.

Under the agreement, between 50 and 100 Israeli civilian and foreign detainees will be released, but no military personnel will be released.

In exchange, about 300 Palestinians would be released from Israeli prisons, including women and children.

On Monday, US President Joe Biden said he believed a deal was close, as hopes rose for talks brokered by Qatar, where Hamas has a political office and which has behind-the-scenes diplomatic ties with Israel. Are.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Monday that its president had traveled to Qatar to meet with Hamas’ Haniyeh.

The agreement could bring some relief to Gazans who have been living under brutal Israeli bombardment and escalating ground offensive for more than six weeks.

Large parts of Gaza have been destroyed by thousands of airstrikes, and the area is cordoned off, with minimal entry of food, water and fuel allowed.

According to Hamas and Islamic Jihad sources, the agreement will also allow the entry of 300 trucks of food and medical aid into Gaza.

Israel has vowed to step up its offensive, promising to crush Hamas and ensure the release of the hostages.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared after meeting with relatives of those kidnapped, “We will not stop fighting until we bring our hostages home.”

In Gaza, doctors and patients were again on the front lines on Tuesday, as Israel expanded its campaign in the north of the territory.

Gaza health ministry officials said Israel attacked an Indonesian hospital on Monday, killing 12 people, before sending in ground forces.

“Israeli forces are surrounding the Indonesian hospital,” ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP.

The Palestinian government said that dozens of tanks and armored vehicles were deployed on the outskirts of the hospital and were firing toward the facility.

“We fear the same thing will happen there as happened in al-Shifa,” Qudra said, referring to Gaza’s largest hospital. Which has been surrounded and searched by Israeli soldiers.

Twenty-eight premature babies were flown from Al-Shifa to Egypt on Monday.

The Indonesian hospital is located on the edge of Jabaliya, Gaza’s largest refugee camp, which has become a new epicenter of the war and has been the site of intense Israeli bombardment in recent days.

The health ministry official said there were still about 400 patients inside hospitals, as well as 2,000 people seeking shelter.

On Monday, about 200 people were evacuated from the hospital and taken safely to a hospital in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.

At al-Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, an AFP reporter saw bloodied children being taken to the hospital, lying dazed in dirty clothes as chaos spread around them.

“We miraculously came out,” said one man, who said he escaped from an Indonesian hospital. “We still have our brothers in there. I can’t…” he said, his voice trailing off.

Israel claims that Hamas uses medical facilities to hide fighters and as bases of operations, making them legitimate military purposes – while insisting that it does so to limit harm to civilians. Makes every possible effort.

But international criticism of Israel’s war conduct has grown in recent weeks, with protests taking place around the world, international agencies accusing Israel of war crimes and some governments breaking diplomatic ties.

The World Health Organization said it was “shocked” by Monday’s strike on an Indonesian hospital and noted that it was one of 164 documented attacks on health facilities and workers since the war began.

“The world cannot remain silent while these hospitals, which should be safe havens, are turning into scenes of death, devastation and despair,” the organization said in a statement.

The Indonesian hospital opened about a decade ago, and was funded by donations from Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi on Monday “strongly condemned the Israeli attack” on the hospital, adding that the ministry had not been able to contact three Indonesian volunteers who were believed to be working at the facility. Were.