“Israel’s army has confirmed that there is no ceasefire and the military is continuing its attacks in Gaza”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
Netanyahu’s announcement came an hour before the truce was scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m.
Israel’s army has confirmed that there is no ceasefire and the military is continuing its attacks in Gaza.
“The IDF continues to strike the Gaza Strip at this time. According to the Prime Minister’s directives, the ceasefire will not take effect until Hamas fulfills its obligations,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement.
Hamas explained the delay in transferring the names to “technical reasons.”
It became known on January 15 that Israel and representatives of Hamas reached an agreement on a ceasefire and exchange of hostages.
According to the terms of the agreement, in the first stage, the Israel Defense Forces will begin the withdrawal of troops from Gaza, and Hamas will release 33 hostages captured by the militants on October 7, 2023.
In the second stage, the parties agreed to a complete ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages in exchange for approximately a thousand Palestinian prisoners.
At the third stage, the parties must exchange the bodies of the dead. At the same time, the start of reconstruction works in the Gaza Strip under the supervision of Egypt, Qatar and the UN is expected.
The current phase of hostilities in Hamas-controlled territory began after the group’s militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. Some of these people were released during exchanges. Currently, according to Israeli special services, 99 hostages remain in the captivity of “Hamas”, some of them are dead.
In response to the attack on October 7, Israel launched a large-scale military operation, during which, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 45 thousand residents of the territory were killed (there is no independent confirmation of this data, also it is not specified how many of the dead were militants and how many were civilians). The Israel Defense Forces also killed many top Hamas leaders and destroyed part of the group’s military infrastructure.