Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
ISRAEL WILL NOT accept a Gaza ceasefire deal unless it sees all of the remaining hostages still being held by Hamas released at once, according to a senior official.
It comes a day after Hamas accepted a new truce proposal and signalled its readiness for a fresh round of talks aimed at ending Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
Mediators are awaiting an official response from Israel to the new proposal, with Qatar noting that it was “almost identical” to an earlier version agreed to by the Israeli government.
According to a report in Egyptian state-linked outlet Al-Qahera News, the latest deal proposes an initial 60-day truce, a partial hostage release, the freeing of some Palestinian prisoners and provisions allowing for the entry of aid.
But speaking on the condition of anonymity, a senior Israeli official told AFP the government’s stance had not changed and demanded the release of all hostages in any deal.
Egypt said Monday that it and Qatar had sent the new proposal to Israel, adding “the ball is now in its court”.
Speaking today, Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said Hamas had given a “very positive response, and it truly was almost identical to what the Israeli side had previously agreed to”.
“We cannot make any claims that a breakthrough has been made. But we do believe it is a positive point,” he added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to publicly comment on the plan, but said last week that his country would accept “an agreement in which all the hostages are released at once and according to our conditions for ending the war”.
Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi said on social media that his group had “opened the door wide to the possibility of reaching an agreement, but the question remains whether Netanyahu will once again close it, as he has done in the past”.
Hamas’s acceptance of the proposal came as Netanyahu faced increasing pressure at home and abroad to end the war.
On Sunday, tens of thousands took to the streets in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv to call for an end to the war and a deal to free the remaining hostages still held captive.
Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack, 49 are still in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
The new proposal also comes after Israel’s security cabinet approved plans to seize control of Gaza City, fanning fears the new offensive will worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the devastated territory.
Amnesty International has accused Israel of carrying out a deliberate campaign of starvation in Gaza, while the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification has said that famine thresholds have already been reached in most of the territory.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir slammed the plan, warning of a “tragedy” if Netanyahu “gives in to Hamas”.
In June, the UK sanctioned Ben Gvir and Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich for “inciting violence” and abuses of Palestinian human rights.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that 45 people were killed today by Israeli strikes and fire across the territory.
Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP the situation was “very dangerous and unbearable” in the Zeitoun and Sabra neighbourhoods of Gaza City, where he said “artillery shelling continues intermittently”.
The Israeli military declined to comment on specific troop movements, saying only that it was “operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities” and took “feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm”.
The military later said a strike in Khan Younis overnight targeted a Hamas militant, adding that “steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians, including the use of precise munition, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence”.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing swaths 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.
Sabra resident Hussein al-Dairi, 44, said “tanks are firing shells and mortars, and drones are firing bullets and missiles” in the neighbourhood.
“We heard on the news that Hamas had agreed to a truce, but the occupation is escalating the war against us, the civilians,” he added.
Today, the United Nations took aim at Israel’s months-long block on bringing tents into the Gaza Strip, despite continual displacement orders being issued to civilians in the devastated territory.
Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, said shelter items had been banned from entering Gaza for about five months – a period in which more than 700,000 people had been displaced or re-displaced.
“They may have been provided with a tent, and then they are displaced again and they have no possibility of taking the tent with them,” he told a press briefing in Geneva.
He said Israel had classified tents as “dual use” because they considered tent poles could potentially be used for a military purpose.
He decried “layers of bureaucracy which seem designed not to facilitate fast entry of anything but rather the opposite”.
The Palestinian health ministry said Israel’s offensive has killed at least 62,064 Palestinians, most of them civilians, figures which the United Nations considers reliable.
With reporting from AFP
Need more information on what is happening in Israel and Gaza? Check out our new FactCheck Knowledge Bank for essential reads and guides to navigating the news online.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say