The Israeli government instructed its negotiating team to resume negotiations for a Gaza cease-fire and a prisoner exchange deal.
The Israeli army said on Thursday that 30 soldiers had been injured in the last two days, the Anadolu news agency reported.
A military statement said the toll included 22 soldiers injured during battles with the Palestinian Resistance in the Gaza Strip.
No information was provided, however, about where the rest of the Israeli soldiers had been wounded.
According to Israeli military figures, at least 634 soldiers have been killed and 3,573 others injured since the outbreak of the Gaza war on October 7, 2023.
The Palestinian Resistance, however, says that the number is much higher considering the heavy losses they inflicted on advancing Israeli troops.
Abu Obeida, the military spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas, has repeatedly stated that the estimates provided by the Israeli army are “unreal,” and that the numbers of casualties are much higher.
Scenes of the wreckage of Israeli miliaty vehicles that were targeted by the resistance during the Walls of Death battle in #Jenin on Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/eJF6spWuXX
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) May 23, 2024
Returning to Negotiations
Meanwhile, the Israeli government instructed its negotiating team to resume negotiations for a Gaza cease-fire and a prisoner exchange deal, Israeli media reported on Thursday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the War Cabinet ordered the negotiating team “to continue negotiations for the return of the hostages.”
Israeli Army Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon, one of the negotiators, presented an updated plan during a War Cabinet meeting after Netanyahu rejected a previous proposal on Saturday, according to the Israeli public broadcaster KAN.
A source reportedly told KAN that the negotiating team did not get everything it asked for “but at least progress can be made.”
According to KAN, the new proposal included a compromise on a point of contention with Hamas, but came with a stiffening of the Israeli position on other matters that the two sides did not agree on.
Al-Qassam Brigades published a video with the following caption (in English, Arabic, and Hebrew):
قيادة تترك قادة جيشها في الأسر !!
ככה הנהגה מפקירה את מפקדיה בשבי !!
What kind of political leadership leaves its military commanders in captivity !! pic.twitter.com/8L8In6fB88— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) May 23, 2024
Hamas’ Acceptance
The Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas announced on May 6 its acceptance of a ceasefire proposal for the besieged Gaza Strip.
Hamas said that the necessary measures “to ensure the implementation of the agreement were also reviewed after the movement made its decision out of concern for our people and their supreme interests.”
“It is now on the occupation to seize the moment and agree to the proposal presented,” the statement added.
Israel, however, rejected the truce offer, claiming that it did not meet its key demands and decided to launch a ground attack on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Gaza Genocide
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 35,709 Palestinians have been killed, and 79,990 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
(PC, Anadolu)
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