After seven days of stoppage, the truce in the Gaza Strip è over at dawn with the resumption of fighting between Israel e Hamas. Mutual accusations of responsibility. On the one hand, the army of the Jewish state accused the radical group of violating the terms of the agreement. On the other hand, Hamas places the blame on Israel as it allegedly "refused all night to accept all offers to release other hostages". And while The Qatar "confirms that the negotiations" between Israel and Hamas "continue with the aim of returning" to a truce, the hope of soon seeing the return of new hostages, at least all the women and children, seems like a scenario that is increasingly receding more. It was already known yesterday that the truce was coming to an end, when the radical Palestinian group, upon expiry of the agreement, failed to deliver a list of prisoners to be released and violated the break by firing flares. To raise the tension also theattemptor, claimed shortly afterwards by Hamas, a Jerusalem occurred at a bus stop where 4 people lost their lives. Israel responded by also striking southern Gaza. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health of the Gaza Strip - controlled by Hamas - said that in the early hours of Friday 1 December, Israeli bombings killed a total of 32 Palestinians in various areas of the Strip.
The fragile truce between Hamas and Israel: how many hostages were freed?
The two sides had initially agreed to a 4-day truce, which was then extended on several occasions after long and complex negotiations by Qatar. From the first days of the truce, the Israeli authorities had said that the suspension of fighting would be temporary - no longer than 10 days. – and that once finished it would restart military operations in the Strip to "eradicate" Hamas.
Ma how many hostages were freed during the truce? In total, Hamas freed 105 people taken hostage during the October 7 attack (out of a total of around 240), including 78 Israeli women and minors. At the moment it is not known how many hostages are still alive in the hands of the extremists. In an interview with US broadcaster CBS, a senior Hamas leader, Ghazi Hamad, responded: “I don't know. The number is not important."
NYT: “Israel has known about the October 7 attack for more than a year”
Il New York Times reveals a series of internal intelligence documents that the Israeli government was aware of Piani of Hamas for theattack on 7 October for more than one year. From what we read in thearticle of the NYT, Israeli army and intelligence leaders underestimated the plan, considering it too "ambitious" and difficult for the extremist group to implement.
According to the documents examined by the NYT, there was no pre-established date, but it described a methodical attack planned down to the smallest details. The goals? Destroy fortifications around Gaza and take control of Israeli cities and assault major military bases, including a division headquarters. Not only. The documents, explains the American newspaper, predicted a barrage of rockets at the beginning of the attack, drones to disable security cameras and automatic machine guns along the border, and armed men pouring into Israel en masse on paragliders, motorcycles and on foot: all things that really happened on that terrible October 7th. The plan also included sensitive information, such as the location and size of Israeli military forces, raising many questions about how Hamas gathered it and whether there were leaks within the Israeli security establishment.
