Illustrative image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
Israel continues to escalate its military operations in the Gaza Strip in a bid to mount more pressure on the Hamas Movement, which is still holding along with other armed factions some 59 hostages in the Palestinian enclave.
On April 14, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced in a statement that over 35 targets were struck by the Israeli Air Force across Gaza over the past day.
The targets included a weapons manufacturing site in central Gaza and a primed rocket launching site, according to the military.
In the same statement, the IDF said that the 252nd Division directed a strike on a cell of fighters planning to ambush its troops in central Gaza.
Meanwhile, in the south of the Strip, troops of the Gaza Division located and demolished yet another tunnel of Hamas. The IDF said that the tunnel, in Rafah’s Shaboura camp, was hundreds of meters long and some 20 meters deep. It was used as a meeting point for Hamas operatives and connected to other underground passages, the military added.
In a nearby area, the IDF said that the Gaza Division troops located a cache of weapons Hamas had hidden in a former school.
And in the Morag Corridor area, between Rafah and the city Khan Younis, the 36th Division found a cache of weapons and several tunnel shafts, per the military.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said on April 14 that at least 39 people were killed by Israeli fire in the last 24 hours.
At least 1,613 Palestinians have been killed since the IDF renewed its operations in Gaza on March 18, shattering a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that was brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar last January. In total, the Israeli war on the Strip has so far claimed the lives of more than 50,983.
Hamas, which has failed to put on any real resistance since Israel renewed its operations, appears to be willing to make some hard concessions.
A senior official of Hamas confirmed on April 14 that the group was prepared to release all Israeli hostages in exchange for a “serious prisoner swap” and guarantees that Israel will end the war in Gaza.
“We are ready to release all Israeli captives in exchange for a serious prisoner swap deal, an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and the entry of humanitarian aid,” Taher al-Nunu, a senior Hamas official, told AFP.
However, the official claimed that Israel was still obstructing progress toward a ceasefire in an effort to keep the war going.
“The issue is not the number of captives,” Nunu said, “but rather that the occupation is reneging on its commitments, blocking the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and continuing the war.”
“Hamas has therefore stressed the need for guarantees to compel the occupation [Israel] to uphold the agreement,” he added.
According to recent Arab and Hebrew media reports, a new proposal had been put to Hamas. Under the deal, the group would release ten living hostages in exchange for U.S. guarantees that Israel would enter negotiations for a second phase of the ceasefire.
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