Iran Fighting in Gaza and Lebanon - hope for hostage talks
Following Israel's retaliatory strike against Iran, negotiations on a ceasefire in the Gaza war are to resume today in Qatar. Representatives of Israel want to meet with those of the mediating states Qatar, Egypt and the USA. The evening before, hundreds of people once again demonstrated in Israel for an agreement to release the hostages who are still being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel's army continues to take action against the Islamist terrorist organization there.
27.10.2024, 04:55
SDA
According to local reports, at least 30 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack in northern Gaza. Five houses in a residential area of the border town of Beit Lahia were attacked. An unknown number of people are believed to be under the rubble. Rescue services were unable to reach them due to the ongoing fighting. Residents of the surrounding houses were taking the wounded away in donkey carts or carrying them away on foot. Israel's military did not initially comment on this, as it is generally not possible to independently verify the information provided by either side.
Fighting continues in Gaza and Lebanon
According to the Israeli air force, it also attacked another Hamas command center in the northern city of Gaza. It was located in a building formerly used as a school, according to reports during the night. Before the "precise attack", numerous measures had been taken to reduce the danger to civilians, it said. This information could not be independently verified either.
Israel's armed forces have been carrying out offensive operations in the northern section of the Gaza Strip for three weeks. According to Palestinian reports, hundreds of civilians have been killed in the process.
During the night, Israel's air force also continued its attacks against the Hamas-allied Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. Lebanon's state news agency NNA reported that Israel had once again targeted southern suburbs of the capital Beirut. An Israeli army spokesman had previously called on the residents of two neighborhoods to leave their homes via Platform X. He said they were close to Hezbollah facilities, which would be targeted in the near future. Like the Islamist Hamas, the Hezbollah militia is part of the Iran-led "Axis of Resistance" against Israel.
Hezbollah continues shelling Israel
Despite Israel's harsh military strikes against Hezbollah, the Shiite militia continues to fire on the Jewish state. In the course of Saturday, around 190 shells were fired at Israel, the Israeli army announced late in the evening. Shortly afterwards, warning sirens sounded again in northern Israel. Two drones that had entered Israel from Lebanon had been intercepted over open terrain, the army announced during the night.
On Saturday night, Israel carried out the retaliatory strike on Iran that had been expected for weeks. It was in response to an Iranian attack on October 1, in which Israel was targeted with around 200 ballistic missiles. According to the Iranian military, four soldiers were killed in the Israeli counter-attack. They were killed in the "defense of Iranian airspace", the state news agency Irna reported, citing an army statement.
Iran: Israel's fighter jets did not enter airspace
US President Joe Biden then insisted on a de-escalation of the situation with constant attacks and counter-attacks. "I hope this is the end," he told reporters in the state of Pennsylvania. He had spoken to representatives of the intelligence services and learned that Israel's attacks had apparently been limited to military targets. Biden also confirmed media reports that he had been informed of Israel's attacks in advance. Despite considerable differences of opinion between the two governments, the USA remains Israel's most important ally.
According to the Iranian military, the Israeli fighter jets did not enter the Islamic Republic's airspace during the attack. Instead, Israel's air force fired long-range air-launched missiles from the Iraqi border area at targets in Iran. Radar stations, for example, were hit in the process, according to a statement from the General Staff, which was disseminated by state media. The damage was "limited and minor". This information could not initially be independently verified either.
The Islamic Republic of Iran reserves the right to respond appropriately at a suitable time, the General Staff of the Armed Forces added. In the statement, Iran's military also emphasized the need for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon "to prevent the killing of defenseless and oppressed people".
Are the Gaza talks getting back on track?
Since the killing of Hamas leader Jihia al-Sinwar in the Gaza Strip in mid-October, negotiators in the region have had a little more hope of restarting negotiations on a ceasefire. The head of the Israeli foreign intelligence service Mossad, David Barnea, is traveling to the Qatari capital Doha today for this purpose. Israel is demanding the release of the 100 or so hostages still being held in Gaza, many of whom are probably no longer alive.
According to Israeli media reports, an official from Barnea's negotiating team is said to have told the relatives of the abductees that a hostage agreement would require an end to the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which is currently not foreseeable. In addition, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not yet given his own negotiating delegation a sufficient mandate to lead today's talks in Doha to a substantial result.
Speakers at a rally in Tel Aviv sharply attacked Netanyahu and accused him of delaying the indirect negotiations. "Who are you going to blame now that Sinwar is dead? The hostages?" the "Times of Israel" quoted the criticism of the brother of a Hamas hostage.
Sinwar's death "perhaps creates an opportunity to actually move forward and decide on an agreement," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said during his recent visit to the Middle East. There has been no progress in the talks for months. There was hope in Israel that this could change after the killing of Sinwar. However, Hamas insists on its previous positions, including the demand for a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip and an end to the war.
The war was triggered by the massacre carried out by Hamas terrorists and other extremists from Gaza in Israel on October 7 last year, in which 1,200 people were killed and a further 250 taken hostage in the Gaza Strip. Since the beginning of the war, Israel has also been attacked by other Iranian allies such as Hezbollah, militias in Iraq and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
