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 war.
Mediators Egypt and Qatar, backed by the US, 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 social media.
Photo: AP
Earlier a Hamas source said the group had 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 had 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 guarantees were offered to ensure implementation and pursue a permanent solution.
Egyptian state-linked al-Qahera reported that the deal proposes an initial 60-day truce, a partial hostage release, the release of some Palestinian prisoners and provisions to allow for the entry of aid.
The proposal comes more than a week after Israel’s security Cabinet approved plans to conquer Gaza City and nearby refugee camps, which has sparked an international outcry as well as domestic opposition.
Out of 251 hostages taken during Hamas’ October 2023 attack that triggered the war, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Earlier, an Islamic Jihad source said that “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.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week said that Israel “will agree to an agreement in which all the hostages are released at once and according to our conditions for ending the war.”
Netanyahu earlier on Monday said that he reviewed plans for the upcoming offensive in Gaza while meeting the head of the army and minister of defense, adding that Hamas was under “extreme pressure.”
Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs 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 2 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 on Monday said that 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.”
On the ground, Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli forces killed at least 20 people across the territory on Monday, including six in the south.
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