UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres “deeply regrets” the resumption of military operations in Gaza after several days of truce, in a message posted Friday on X (formerly Twitter). “I still hope that it will be possible to renew the pause that has been established. The resumption of hostilities only shows how important it is to have a true humanitarian ceasefire,” added Antonio Guterres, a few hours after the resumption of bombing by the Israeli army on Palestinian territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of having “violated the agreement” which led to a humanitarian truce lasting several days. It enabled the release of several dozen hostages who had been held in Gaza since the bloody Hamas attack in Israel on October 7.
The main information:
- Fighting resumed this Friday morning between Israel and Hamas
- UN chief ‘deeply regrets’ resumption of hostilities
- According to a New York Times investigation, Israel had been warned for a year that Hamas was preparing an unprecedented attack
- Thirty Palestinian prisoners released by Israel in exchange for hostages
IDF says it has confirmed the death of five hostages and informed the families
The Israeli army has confirmed the death of five captive hostages in the Gaza Strip, its spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, announced on Friday, specifying that it had informed the families.
“In recent days, the Israeli army and police informed the families” of five hostages of their deaths. “A committee of experts (…) established their death after investigation and on the basis of intelligence information,” he declared during a press briefing, specifying that a military operation had made it possible to bring back to Israel the body of one of these five hostages.
Hamas reports 178 deaths this Friday in Gaza
Hamas announced that 178 people died and 589 were injured Friday in Israeli raids that resumed after a week-long truce.
The first explosions rang out in the small, crowded territory shortly after the truce expired at 0500 GMT on Friday. The Israeli army assured that it had struck “more than 200 terrorist targets” in Gaza on Friday.
Israeli bombing kills two civilians in southern Lebanon, Lebanese media says
An Israeli bombardment killed two civilians in southern Lebanon on Friday, official Lebanese media reported, hours after the expiration of a truce between Israel and Palestinian Hamas that saw a reduction in shooting along the Israeli border. -Lebanese.
The Lebanese National News Agency (Ani) said that “two civilians” were killed in the town of Hula “after their house was the target of an Israeli enemy bombardment”, identifying them as Nasifa Mazraani and her son Mohammed. A local official and rescuers also confirmed the deaths to AFP.
IDF announces that it has “resumed the fight” in Gaza, the Israeli government promises “the worst beating” to Hamas
The truce that came into force on November 24 between Israel and Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, expired Friday morning, and fighting resumed between the belligerents, according to AFP journalists on site. The truce expired at 7 a.m. local time (5:00 GMT). The Israeli army said in a statement that it had “resumed the fight against the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip”, while rocket warning sirens sounded in several Israeli localities close to this territory. In Gaza City, an AFP journalist reported dozens of Israeli artillery fire and airstrikes.
“Hamas will now receive the worst beating,” Eylon Levy said in a statement to the press, accusing Hamas of failing to provide new lists of hostages to be released in exchange for Palestinian detainees and having fired a rocket into Israeli territory before the end of the truce scheduled for 7 a.m. local time.
Hamas announces 29 deaths since the resumption of fighting
The resumption of Israeli bombardments in the Gaza Strip on Friday morning after the expiration of the truce with Israel left at least 29 Palestinians dead, including children, Hamas announced. The ministry said it had recorded seven deaths in the north in Jabaliya and Gaza City, twelve in Khan Younes and Rafah in the south and ten others in al-Maghazi, in the center of the Palestinian territory.
France considers “indispensable” a resumption of the truce between Israel and Hamas
France deemed a resumption of the truce between Israel and Hamas “indispensable” on Friday after hostilities resumed in Gaza. “The breakdown of the truce is very bad news, regrettable, because it does not provide any solution and it complicates the resolution of all the questions that arise,” declared the head of French diplomacy Catherine Colonna on the sidelines of COP28 on the climate in Dubai.
The negotiated truce in force since November 24 in the Gaza Strip, during which around a hundred hostages held by Hamas were released, expired on Friday. The Israeli army has resumed its air raids and artillery fire while the Palestinian Islamist movement has resumed firing rockets towards Israel.
“We demand that the truce resume. It must. It is essential both to continue the release of hostages who have now been in extremely difficult conditions for 55 days, and to bring in more humanitarian aid and be able to distribute it inside the Gaza Strip where the civilian population is suffering,” the French minister told journalists.
Israel knew for more than a year that Hamas was preparing an unprecedented attack
Israeli officials had obtained Hamas’s plan to carry out an unprecedented attack against Israel more than a year in advance, but deemed the scenario unrealistic, the NY Times argued Thursday based on secret documents. Israeli military intelligence had got its hands on a document of around forty pages from Hamas detailing, point by point, a vast attack like the one perpetrated by commandos on October 7 which left around 1,200 dead in Israel, according to the major daily American.
This document, which circulated in intelligence circles under the code name “Jericho Wall”, did not give a date for a possible attack but defined precise points to saturate the Israeli security system and then attack cities and military bases.
More specifically, the document reports a barrage of rockets, drones destroying security cameras and automated defense systems, then fighters crossing to the Israeli side by paraglider, by car and on foot, elements at the heart of the attack of October 7. But it was “not possible to determine” whether this plan had been approved “completely” by the Hamas leadership and how it could translate into reality, underlines an internal Israeli army document obtained by the Times.
Thirty Palestinian prisoners released by Israel in exchange for hostages
Thirty Palestinians, all women and minors detained in Israeli prisons, were released overnight from Thursday to Friday in accordance with the truce agreement between Israel and Hamas, the Israel Prisons Authority announced. These prisoners were released a few hours before the scheduled expiration of the truce, after the earlier release by Hamas of eight Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip, to which were added two Franco-Israeli hostages released on Wednesday.
Qatar, the main truce mediator, announced earlier that the Palestinian prisoners to be released were 23 minors and seven women. Since its entry into force on November 24, the truce agreement between Israel and Hamas has already enabled the release of 110 hostages, including 80 women, children and young people under the age of 19, Israeli or binational.
In exchange, 240 Palestinian prisoners were released. In addition, around thirty foreigners, mostly Thais working in Israel, were released outside the framework of this agreement.