The fight to loosen the grip Hamas has on Gaza continues….
Hamas / Israeli cease-fire negotiations….
Hamas announced after midnight on Thursday that it had submitted a response to the latest Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal proposal, after mediators had furiously rejected the previous reply presented by the terror group on Tuesday night.
The Thursday response was a softened version of what Hamas submitted on Tuesday, an Israeli official said on condition of anonymity, adding that the Jerusalem was in the process of reviewing it in full.
Hamas’s earlier proposal was quickly rejected by the mediators who viewed its new series of demands to have been “unacceptable,” according to a source involved in the talks told The Times of Israel on Wednesday….
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Other Updates….
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The Irish deputy prime minister Simon Harris has described the latest reports of mass starvation in Gaza as “an affront to our collective humanity”.
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Brazil will intervene in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel’s actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.
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Israel’s president Isaac Herzog visited the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and told soldiers that there were “intensive negotiations” about returning the hostages in Gaza, adding that he hopes that they will soon “hear good news”, a statement from the president’s spokesperson reported.
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France has said the risk of famine in Gaza is a “result of” Israel’s blockade, in a statement.
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An official familiar with ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas said a top adviser to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ron Dermer, was travelling to Rome to meet US special envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday to discuss the state of the talks.
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Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,219 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures….
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Update on Hamas…
Hamas is facing its worst financial and administrative crisis in its four-decade history, facing stiff challenges in mustering the resources it would need to continue to fight Israel and rule Gaza.
With its coffers depleted, Hamas’s military wing can no longer adequately pay the salaries of its fighters, though it is still able to recruit teenage boys for missions like keeping lookout or placing explosives along Israeli military routes, according to Oded Ailam, who is a former high-level Israeli intelligence officer, and current Israel Defense Forces officers.
The group has also been unable to replace the well equipped tunnels and underground command centers that Israeli forces have destroyed in their bid to uproot Hamas. Before he was killed in an airstrike two months ago, Hamas military commander Mohammed Sinwar had taken refuge in a one-room hideout 30 feet below a hospital in southern Gaza. The spartan bunker was a far cry from the vast underground complex that the Israeli military said it found earlier in the war farther north, which included spacious white-tiled rooms, a blast-proof door, mechanical ventilation and ample space to accommodate weapons stockpiles.
“Hamas is not rebuilding their tunnels, they’re not paying their highly trained fighters, they’re only surviving,” Ailam said….
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As Hamas has come under growing military and financial pressures, it has become increasingly repressive in a bid to show it is still in control. Gazans interviewed for this story spoke of growing fear of retribution. In videos posted since this spring on social media by a Hamas-linked unit formed to dole out punishments, masked gunmen are shown beating up and shooting the legs of men accused of stealing aid.
Gazans said Hamas is also seeking to intimidate those critical of the group. Last month, for instance, Mowafeq Khdour, 31, was robbed and brutally beaten by dozens of armed Hamas men after he spoke out publicly against Hamas, his brother Mahmoud said over WhatsApp.
As Hamas adopts harsher policies, the group’s popularity is falling, said Rami, a 40-year-old employee of the Hamas-run government who spoke on the condition that only his first name be used out of concern for his safety. He said the anger on Gaza’s streets is markedly different from the optimism earlier in the conflict, when “we believed we were on the brink of liberating Palestine or achieving a major victory in the war,” especially with Hamas and its allies holding about 250 people hostage.
“Israel’s actions are undeniably criminal, but Hamas’s poor judgment and failure to account for the war’s aftermath have also contributed significantly to this disaster,” Rami said….