Unrwa accuses Israel of torturing 50 employees. Hamas denies progress: negotiations still stalled

UN agency director alleges torture against 50 employees. Israeli raids kill three Hamas leaders. In Rome, the harrowing testimony of the families of the 7 October victims

Tension grows over the Gaza crisis, amid new accusations, targeted raids and a stalemate in negotiations. Unrwa Director General Philippe Lazzarini has reported that at least fifty employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees were allegedly tortured by Israeli forces (IDF) after 7 October. The allegations speak of beatings, threats, sleep deprivation, use of dogs and pressure to extract confessions. ‘They were treated in the most shocking and inhuman way,’ Lazzarini wrote in “X”, demanding justice for the violations of international law.

On the military front, the IDF announced the elimination of three prominent terrorist figures in Gaza: Sa’id Abu Hasnan, commander of the Kissufim attack, Mustafa al-Mutawwak, operational leader of the Jabalia battalion, and Ali Naddal Husni Sarfiti of the Popular Front, already detained in Israel for terrorist activities.

Talks in Cairo for a ceasefire are meanwhile stalled. Hamas, through a senior official, denied any progress in the negotiations, denying having received new proposals and reiterating its rejection of ‘partial and temporary’ solutions. Israeli sources also downplayed the declarations of a ‘breakthrough’ circulated in recent days by Egyptian mediators.

In Rome, meanwhile, a touching meeting was held at the Tullia Zevi Library of Italian Judaism, attended by a delegation of relatives of the 7 October victims and hostages. ‘Enough Hamas, the world must wake up,’ said Eli Shtivi, father of Idan, who was killed after being kidnapped at the Nova Festival. Salem Alatrash, brother of a Bedouin soldier who was tortured and killed, also called for the bodies of the fallen to be brought home. ‘This is not a war between Jews and Arabs, but between terrorists and humanity,’ said Idan Baruch, brother of another murdered young man.

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(Photo: © AndKronos)