Proposal comes days after Israel\u2019s security cabinet approved plans to expand the war into Gaza City
\n Gaza
\nHamas has accepted a new ceasefire proposal for Gaza without requesting amendments, a source from the group told AFP Monday, after a fresh diplomatic push to end more than 22 months of war. 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.
\nBut after receiving a new proposal from meditators, Hamas said it was ready for talks. \u201cHamas has delivered its response to the mediators, confirming that Hamas and the factions agreed to the new ceasefire proposal without requesting any amendments,\u201d the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
\nIsrael has yet to respond.
\nA Palestinian source familiar with the talks said mediators were \u201cexpected to announce that an agreement has been reached and set a date for the resumption of talks\u201d, adding that guarantees were offered to ensure implementation and pursue a permanent solution. Another Palestinian official earlier said mediators had proposed an initial 60-day truce and hostage release in two batches.
\nThe proposal comes more than a week after Israel\u2019s security cabinet approved plans to expand the war into Gaza City and nearby refugee camps, which has sparked international outcry as well as domestic opposition.
\n\u2018Confronted and destroyed\u2019
\nAn Islamic Jihad source told AFP the plan envisaged a 60-day ceasefire \u201cduring which 10 Israeli hostages would be released alive, along with a number of bodies\u201d.
\nOut of 251 hostages taken during Hamas\u2019s October 2023 attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
\nThe Islamic Jihad source said \u201cthe remaining captives would be released in a second phase\u201d, with negotiations for a broader settlement to follow. They added that \u201call factions are supportive\u201d of the Egyptian and Qatari proposal.
\nUS President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social: \u201cWe will only see the return of the remaining hostages when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!!\u201d \u201cThe sooner this takes place, the better the chances of success will be.\u201d
\nLast week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel \u201cwill agree to an agreement in which all the hostages are released at once and according to our conditions for ending the war\u201d.
\nMeanwhile, in a now familiar scene in Gaza, AFP footage from the southern city of Khan Yunis showed crowds of mourners kneeling over the shrouded bodies of their loved ones who were killed seeking aid the day before.
\n\u2018Beyond imagination\u2019
\nEgyptian 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 \u201cto consolidate our existing common efforts in order to apply maximum pressure on the two sides to reach a deal as soon as possible\u201d.
\nAlluding 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.
\n\u201cThe current situation on the ground is beyond imagination,\u201d he said.
\nEgypt 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 \u201cpolitical horizon\u201d.
\n\u2018Deliberate\u2019 starvation
\nOn the ground, Gaza\u2019s 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.
\nContacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was \u201cnot aware of any casualties as a result of IDF fire\u201d in the southern areas reported by the civil defence.
\nMedia restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing swathes of the Palestinian territory mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.
\nRights group Amnesty International, meanwhile, accused Israel of enacting a \u201cdeliberate policy\u201d of starvation in Gaza and \u201csystematically destroying the health, well-being and social fabric of Palestinian life\u201d.
\nIsrael, while heavily restricting aid allowed into Gaza, has repeatedly rejected claims of deliberate starvation.
\nHamas\u2019s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
\nIsrael\u2019s offensive has killed more than 62,004 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Proposal comes days after Israel\u2019s security cabinet approved plans to expand the war into Gaza City Gaza Hamas has accepted a new ceasefire proposal for Gaza without requesting amendments, a source from the group told AFP Monday, after a fresh diplomatic push to end more than 22 months of war. Mediators Egypt and Qatar, backed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-497557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n