
Israel kills dozens in Gaza airstrikes despite ceasefire deal | BBC News
BBC News- 105 views
- 16 Jan 2025
Israeli air strikes are continuing in Gaza ahead of the ceasefire agreement and hostage deal with Hamas, which comes into effect ...
Officials in the US say they are confident that a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas will go through despite a delay after Israel accused Hamas of trying to alter the terms of the agreement. Tonight, Israel Security Minister, Itmar Ben-Gaver, who's part of the hardline right wing faction of the government, threatened to quit the governing coalition if a deal were to go ahead. Overnight, after jubilant scenes in Gaza, news of a ceasefire. Israeli airstrikes killed over 80 people, according to the Hamas run Health Ministry, a figure which includes women and children. This report is by Jeremy Bowen.
Just a few hours after the ceasefire agreement was announced, men in Northern Gaza were back digging through the trouble for the dead and wounded after an Israeli strike. The ceasefire is not due to start until Sunday. Then they heard a small voice. He was alive. Strong enough to wave for help. His name is Asad Fadel Khalifa. His parents, sister, aunt and uncle, were told were killed in the strike. He's three years old. His mouth was full of gravel and dust. He was trying to pull it out himself. We went to Nablus on the West bank, the other side of the occupied Palestinian territories, to try to assess the mood Israel won't let us into Gaza. Nablus is a Palestinian city with a long history of resistance to the Israeli occupation. It's a toy gun. Down the street, the faces of men killed using real guns to fight Israelis, some from a militia known as the Lion's Den. Heroic martyrs here, terrorists as far as Israel is concerned. Amma has a stall selling sweet corn. Peace is difficult because you need to go back to the religion and doctor. But we would love for the bombing to stop, and for them to leave Gaza, and for the prisoners to get free, and for everyone to go back to their homes and family because they suffered a lot in this war.
May God help them. At her stall, Amina is desperate for the ceasefire to work.
It affected us a lot here, both financially and mentally. We, especially are affected by what we are seeing, the children who are dying. We hope we could help, but we can only pray.
A ceasefire, if it could hold, would be a considerable and an overdue achievement. But the sad truth is that it wouldn't end the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. Everything that has happened since the seventh of October attacks has made the conflict about as bitter as it's ever been. Just outside Nablus is the Jewish settlement of Kedumim, home to leaders of the settler movement. Daniela Weiss has lived here for 50 years. Now she's working through her list of right-wing connections, trying to overturn the ceasefire deal she says is a betrayal.
For me today is a very difficult day. What government, what Prime Minister with common sense will give back the area from where thousands of Gaza people attacked us, conquered parts of our country.
This is treachery. What does all this mean for Israel? What does it add up to? In simple words, get ready for another war. It's cruel, dangerous, with many casualties. This is what it means today. Itimar Bengevier, Minister of National Security, shares her views, threatening to resign if the ceasefire is ratified. It is a reckless deal, he said, that releases hundreds of murderous terrorists, allows thousands of terrorists back to Northern Gaza, and erases what he called the war's achievements. Bengevier stalked off with supporters from his party, Jewish power. Ultra-nationalist opposition to the ceasefire is a major political problem for Benjamin Netanyahu. Outside his office, Israelis who want to bury the ceasefire deal held a fake funeral. They want the Prime Minister to keep his promise to destroy Hamas and rescue all the hostages. For them, negotiating a phased prisoner exchange with Hamas and pulling out of Gaza smells like defeat. Police made some arrests. Many Israelis support the ceasefire. For now, the anger of those who don't is canceled out by Donald Trump's determination to take a diplomatic victory into the White House. But the coffins intended to warn about the ceasefire's dangers are also assigned to the ceasefire's supporters that it might not end the war.
Jeremy Bowen, BBC News, Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, aid trucks are queuing at the Southern Crossing into Gaza, waiting for the ceasefire expected on Sunday Sunday. Aid has got into Gaza from a number of crossings since the war began. Before it, around 500 lorry loads of aid entered every day, according to the UN. But that plummeted to nine a day in the period just after the war started. Since the beginning of January, it's averaged 51 truckloads a day. The ceasefire deal allows for 600 lorry loads a day. Our correspondent, Fergal Keen, has been traveling with an aid convoy from Jordan, which has now been stopped at the Israel border. Help is coming.
Down along the valley, the biggest aid convoy since the war began. Solidarity from the Kingdom of Jordan. In two deliveries, 120 trucks on the road to Gaza, from a country that is home to many Palestinians. We're carrying aid like food and medication for our brothers in Gaza, says Mustafa Al Qadri. This is a good deed. We're happy to be part of this operation. We can travel with this convoy as far as the Israeli border. But since the war began, Israel does not allow the foreign media to enter Gaza and report independently. But our BBC colleagues living in Gaza have been filming every day, including today, the first real moment of hope. They're waiting for today's a meager charity.
Little wonder that tired tempers fray when you've lived this struggle every day.
The aid from Jordan is the tiniest fraction of what's needed here. But it does say to the people of Gaza, by your neighbor, at least, you're not forgotten.
I used to shop and go to school, and my mom used to cook for me, and when I got back, she would tell me to come eat. I dream every day about the ceasefire. I want to go home and for my father to return to us.
Home, a word that holds so much in any language, a word that means dignity for Lemis Al Mazari, age 16.
I never thought I'd be fed by a charity. This is so unfair. If I don't get meals from here, I don't eat, so I keep coming. My life as a young girl, dreaming of studying at a university or school, playing and having fun, has been reduced to accepting handouts.
Nearly 2 million people are dependent on aid here. Less than 3 hours drive away in Jordan, some of what they need. But when will it arrive? The UN complaints of repeated Israeli delays, of criminal gangs hijacking aid. The convoy we followed is still waiting to be allowed cross into Israel. Fergal Keen, BBC News, Jordan.
Let's go back to Jeremy, who is in Jerusalem for us. Jeremy, the question everyone's asking, will this ceasefire still start on Sunday?
Well, I think the people in Gaza certainly hope that it will after the severity of the bombing that they've endured since the announcement came. I think one question that has to be asked is the degree to which the Israelis had a strong military rationale for that level of bombing and killing, or whether it was more about sending a political message to those right wingers in Israel who feel that they are effectively surrendering rather than sealing the victory that they want over Hamamadou Mass. As for the wider ceasefire, yeah, I think that there's every indication that it will be ratified and it will start. But the important thing to remember about it is it's a ceasefire of phases. The first one, 42 days, 6 weeks, In that phase, there'll be 33 hostages released, prisoner exchanges, and the beginning of an Israeli withdrawal. Now, the difficulty will be getting to the next stage, the second stage, which is all about ending the war. And ultimately, pulling Israeli troops right out of Gaza. Now, this is a very long process. More negotiations need to be done, and a lot of things can happen. History in the past tends to show that when there is a long process like this, sometimes events take on their own momentum.
Plus, of course, as you may have seen in the report that I did, there is opposition on the hard right in Israel to this ceasefire happening at all. I think what we have to accept is that it is a fragile process and that it may not work, but up to now, it's the best option that there's been.