ਹਮਾਸ-ਇਜ਼ਰਾਈਲ ਯੁੱਧ, 2023: ਇੱਕ ਵਿਸ਼ਲੇਸ਼ਣ

[dalvinder45]

Authorities in Gaza have updated the death toll from Israel’s war on the enclave to 61,709, having added thousands who are missing and now presumed dead. The head of the Gaza Government Information Office told a news conference that the bodies of 76 percent of the Palestinians killed in the conflict have been recovered and brought to medical centres. However, at least 14,222 people are still believed to be trapped under the rubble or in areas inaccessible to rescuers.Speaking at Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, Salama Maarouf told reporters that among the death toll are 17,881 children, including 214 newborn infants.“More than 2 million people have been forcibly displaced, some more than 25 times, under dire conditions lacking basic services,” the official added, noting that 111,588 people have also been injured.
The updated numbers come amid the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that last month halted, at least temporarily, 15 months of genocide in the enclave, which followed the assault by Hamas on southern Israel in October 2023 that saw the armed group kill about 1,200 and take 250 people back to Gaza as captives. The pause in fighting, set to continue until at least early March, has given room for Palestinian rescuers to reach parts of Gaza they could not reach before.
“Humanitarian and medical teams have shifted from rescue to recovery missions,” said Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzom, reporting from Gaza’s al-Rashid Street, a route many Palestinians are taking to head back to their northern hometowns. “Hundreds of homes have become graveyards.”
Maarouf also noted the heavy toll on health, humanitarian and media workers in the enclave. At least 1,155 medical personnel, 205 journalists and 194 civil defence workers are reported to have been killed during Israel’s onslaught.

Negotiations are about to get under way, moving to the second stage of the three-phase ceasefire. That envisages an approach to a permanent end to the war.
Mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States will open those talks today, but if they cannot bring Israel and Hamas to an agreement, fighting could resume in March.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in Washington, DC and plans to meet President Donald Trump, is under pressure from far-right allies to cut the ceasefire short and continue fighting.
Netanyahu, who alongside other Israeli officials and Hamas leaders is wanted by the international criminal court for alleged war crimes, said he and Trump would discuss “victory over Hamas, achieving the release of all our hostages and dealing with the Iranian terror axis” in the Middle East. Palestinian patients entered Egypt after nine months as Rafah crossing opened. Gaza’s Health Ministry says group of 50 patients and their attendants are in Egypt for medical treatment abroad.
Arab ministers reject Trump call to displace Palestinians from Gaza. US president has suggested that Egypt and Jordan should to take in Palestinians from Gaza.

 

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Hamas to hand over four Israeli captives’ bodies in Gaza on Thursday. Netanyahu’s office confirms Israel to receive six living captives, four bodies. Hamas eyes second phase of Gaza ceasefire as it confirms more releases. Israeli army says 25 Palestinians arrested in occupied West Bank. Photos: Israeli army demolishes 6 homes in occupied West Bank’s Masafer Yatta. Hamas to hand over four Israeli captives’ bodies on Thursday. Israeli forces kill child in southern Gaza’s Rafah city: Report. Rubio says Russia serious on Ukraine peace talks, Kyiv not sidelined
Israel partially withdrawing troops from Lebanon as deadline expires.

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The Israeli military is keeping troops at five southern Lebanese posts despite a Tuesday withdrawal deadline. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will, for the time being, remain at the outposts in Lebanon “so we can continue to defend our residents and to make sure there’s no immediate threat,” Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an IDF spokesperson, said on Monday. Israel’s military identified the handful of strategic locations in southern Lebanon overlooking northern Israeli communities.

The Israeli military is believed to have withdrawn from Lebanese population centers in recent days. The Lebanese military announced new deployments Tuesday morning to various towns in southern Lebanon.
Lebanon will consider any remaining Israeli presence on its territory as an “occupation,” the Lebanese Presidency said in a statement Tuesday, adding that it reserves the right “to employ all means” to ensure Israel’s withdrawal.

But signaling that Hezbollah is unlikely to launch an immediate fight against Israel’s remaining troops, the group’s Al Manar TV declared on Tuesday that southern Lebanon had “returned because of the blood of the martyrs.”

Israel and Hezbollah ended a year-long war in November, in a ceasefire brokered in part by the United States. A deadline for Israel to withdraw, originally set for January, was extended to February 18 at Israel’s request.

A Lebanese woman sits on the rubble of a house in Aita al-Shaab, a Lebanese border village, on January 26.
Around 60,000 Israelis were forced from their homes in the north of the country after Hezbollah attacked Israel in solidarity with Hamas, in October 2023. Few of them have returned to border towns that have been devastated by rocket fire. A year-long, low-level conflict culminated last fall with an Israeli invasion and bombing campaign that saw more than a million Lebanese civilians displaced from their homes.

“The most basic violation is the presence of Hezbollah activists south of the Litani River,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, it continued to be the reality. Once Lebanon fully implements its side of the deal, there will be no need to hold these points.”

Israel has declined to say whether Lebanon’s government had agreed to the extension, saying only that the Israeli government had spoken with the ceasefire’s mediators, led by the US.

Publicly, Lebanese leaders had been scathing. Nabih Berri, the speaker of Lebanon’s parliament, said in a Thursday statement that the US had informed him of Israel’s plan, which he rejected on Lebanon’s behalf.

“I refused to talk about any deadline to extend the withdrawal period,” he said, according to Lebanon’s official news agency NNA. “And it is the responsibility of the Americans to impose the withdrawal.” He added that if Israel remains in those locations, it “means that the Israelis will practice freedom of movement and aggression in Lebanon, and this is unacceptable.”

Palestinians killed in Hamas war so far more than 48000 and more than one lakh injured