A member of Hamas stated this Thursday that “it is too early to talk” about the release of more than 100 hostages who, according to estimates, are being held by the Islamist movement in the Gaza Strip, while intense Israeli bombing continues.
“It is too early to talk about the issue of prisoners without first stopping the aggression” in the Gaza Strip, Osama Abu Khaled, a member of the Hamas cabinet, told Efe.
The organization is “establishing contacts with all parties involved to put an end to the aggression,” Abu Khaled said, without giving further details.
Hamas continues to call on humanitarian organizations to “provide urgent and rapid aid” as well as fuel and other basic goods in the face of the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, where more than 2.2 million people are on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe.
Abu Khaled reiterated that the Islamist movement, which has controlled Gaza since 2007 and has been at war with Israel for six days, rejects the opening of a humanitarian corridor because “it aims to force the displacement” of the inhabitants of Gaza.
“The Palestinian people, with all their strength, men, women, children and the elderly, would rather die than abandon their land and their homes. What is needed is for humanitarian organizations to be allowed entry,” he said.
In Gaza, at least 1,350 people were killed and 6,049 injured by Israeli airstrikes, and hospitals left without power and in urgent need of materials have pushed their situation to the limit.
Negotiations continue between Egypt and the United States on humanitarian aid to Gaza and the transfer of the wounded in need of treatment to Egypt, as well as on a truce proposed by the Egyptian authorities, according to the sources, who stated that so far all these proposals They were rejected by Israel.
The number of displaced people in the Gaza Strip exceeded 338,000, increasing by 75,000 the number of civilians who fled their homes in Palestinian territory in a single day, the UN Humanitarian Aid Coordination Office (OCHA) reported today.
Source: TSF
