Hamas has accepted a new ceasefire proposal for Gaza, a senior member of the group said on Monday, after a fresh diplomatic push to end more than 22 months of fighting.
Israel has been facing growing international criticism over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by its offensive since October 2023, with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and experts already declaring its actions in Gaza as a “genocide”, which Tel Aviv rejects.
Mediators Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, have struggled to secure a lasting truce in the conflict, which has triggered a dire humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. But after receiving a new proposal from mediators, Hamas said it was ready for talks.
“The movement has submitted its response, agreeing to the mediators’ new proposal. We pray to God to extinguish the fire of this war on our people,” senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said on Facebook.
Earlier, a Hamas source told AFP the group accepted the proposal “without requesting any amendments”.
Egypt said it and Qatar had sent the new proposal to Israel, adding “the ball is now in its court”. Israel has yet to respond.
A Palestinian source familiar with the talks said mediators were “expected to announce that an agreement has been reached and set a date for the resumption of talks”, adding that guarantees were offered to ensure implementation and pursue a permanent solution.
According to a report in Egyptian state-linked media Al-Qahera, the deal proposed an initial 60-day truce, partial hostage release, release of some Palestinian detainees and provisions to allow for the entry of aid.
The proposal comes more than a week after Israel’s security cabinet approved plans to expand operations into Gaza City and nearby refugee camps, which have sparked international outcry as well as domestic opposition.
‘Confronted and destroyed’
Out of 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s October 2023 attack that triggered the conflict, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Earlier, an Islamic Jihad source said “the remaining captives would be released in a second phase”, with negotiations for a broader settlement to follow. They added that “all factions are supportive” of the Egyptian and Qatari proposal.
US President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social: “We will only see the return of the remaining hostages when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!! The sooner this takes place, the better the chances of success will be.”
Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “will agree to an agreement in which all the hostages are released at once and according to our conditions for ending the war”.
Meanwhile, in a now familiar scene in Gaza, AFP footage from the southern city of Khan Younis showed crowds of mourners kneeling over the shrouded bodies of their loved ones who were killed seeking aid the day before.
‘Beyond imagination’
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, visiting the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on Monday, said Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani was visiting “to consolidate our existing common efforts in order to apply maximum pressure on the two sides to reach a deal as soon as possible”.
Alluding to the dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people living in the Gaza Strip, where UN agencies and aid groups have warned of famine, Abdelatty stressed the urgency of reaching an agreement.
“The current situation on the ground is beyond imagination,” he said.
Egypt said on Monday it was willing to join a potential international force deployed to Gaza, but only if backed by a UN Security Council resolution and accompanied by a “political horizon”.
‘Deliberate’ starvation
On the ground, Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 11 people across the territory on Monday, including six killed by Israeli fire in the south.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was “not aware of any casualties as a result of IDF fire” in the southern areas reported by the civil defence.
Rights group Amnesty International, meanwhile, accused Israel of enacting a “deliberate policy” of starvation in Gaza and “systematically destroying the health, well-being and social fabric of Palestinian life”.
Israel, while heavily restricting aid allowed into Gaza, has repeatedly rejected claims of deliberate starvation.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 62,004 Palestinians, most of them civilians.