The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the number of casualties of the Israeli offensive had risen to 29,606 dead and 69,737 injured. The ministry said that the Israeli forces carried out eight attacks in the Gaza Strip, killing 92 and injuring 123 in the past 24 hours.
A spokesperson for the Gaza Ministry of Health said on Saturday that more than a million people suffer from severe malnutrition in the strip. The spokesperson added that Israel refuses to allow medical supplies and fuel to enter the northern Gaza Strip and that Israel destroyed 150 medical facilities and put 32 hospitals out of service.
The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth quoted Israeli officials as saying that the Paris talks were positive and lasted longer than expected, indicating that there is still room for negotiation.
Israeli media also reported from sources familiar with the prisoner exchange talks that the agreement in Paris was reached based on new general principles. The sources said that there is progress that may enable a move to discuss the details.
On Friday, talks began in Paris to discuss reaching a prisoner exchange and ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip, with the participation of Egypt, Qatar, the United States, and an Israeli delegation led by Mossad chief David Barnea.
The Israeli Radio Corporation quoted sources as saying that the US administration informed Israel that Arab countries were preparing an initiative regarding the so-called “day after the war in Gaza.” The Israeli Radio added that the Arab plan includes a clause that stipulates the integration of Hamas into the Palestine Liberation Organization.
It pointed out that Brett McGurk, the US President’s envoy, pressured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the government regarding “the day after the Gaza war.”
In a related context, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the announcement by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to build 3,300 new units in illegal settlements in the West Bank is provocative and dangerous.
Borrell added that settlements make Israelis and Palestinians less secure, increase tensions, hinder peace efforts, and violate international law.
On the ground, the Israeli army announced that seven of its officers and soldiers were wounded during clashes last Thursday in the Gaza Strip, and explained that its forces from the 162nd Division are continuing to fight in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, south of Gaza City. The Israeli army spoke of intense battles being waged by its forces against the Palestinian resistance in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army also announced the killing of a company commander in the Shaked Battalion of the Givati Brigade in the clashes taking place north of Gaza, bringing the losses of the Israeli forces since the start of its war on the Strip to 577, according to official statistics of the Israeli army.
Meanwhile, the Al-Quds Brigades – the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement – said that it shelled gatherings of Israeli vehicles and soldiers in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood with mortar shells, noting that it hit a military vehicle with an RPG shell there.
For its part, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), announced that it targeted an Israeli Merkava tank with a Tandem shell south of the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City.
