Hamas weighs truce proposal as Israel continues Gaza onslaught
ISRAELI strikes across Gaza killed scores overnight as battles raged yesterday in the besieged territory’s south and Hamas was reviewing a proposal for a halt in the nearly four-month-long war.
France’s top diplomat Stephane Sejourne began his first Middle East trip as foreign minister, aimed at pushing for a ceasefire and hostage release, a ministry spokesman said, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also expected in the region in the coming days.
The health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory said overnight Israeli strikes had killed at least 92 people.
Israel has warned its ground forces could advance on Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of people seeking refuge from the fighting shelter in makeshift encampments.
The army said yesterday its troops raided “a compound used by the commander of Hamas’s Khan Yunis brigade” and seized weapons, also confirming air and naval strikes on the city. It reported several militants had been killed after attempting to attack Israeli troops.
With the war set to enter a fifth month on Wednesday, international mediators were pressing to seal a proposed truce deal thrashed out in a Paris meeting of top United States, Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials. But a top Hamas official in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, said on Saturday that the proposed framework was missing some details.
The group needed more time to “announce our position,” he said, “based on... our desire to put an end as quickly as possible to the aggression that our people suffer.”
The war was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures.
They also seized around 250 hostages, and Israel says 132 are in Gaza, including at least 27 believed to have been killed.
Vowing to eliminate Hamas, Israel launched a massive military offensive that has killed at least 27,365 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Rafah, once home to 200,000 people, now hosts more than half of Gaza’s population, the United Nations said.
“We are exhausted,” said displaced Gazan Mahmud Abu al-Shaar, urging “a ceasefire so we can return home.”
Concern for hostages still in Gaza and security failures surrounding the October 7 attack — the deadliest in Israel’s 75-year history — have led to criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and rallies against the government.
Michal Hadas, protesting in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, said she feared Israel’s leaders were dragging out the conflict for political reasons, “because as long as the war continues there will be no election.”
(AFP)