Hamas studying new truce proposal
Mediators seek to revive talks in israel as country preps to push into rafah
Hamas said it was studying the latest Israeli counterproposal regarding a potential ceasefire in Gaza, a day after a delegation from mediator Egypt reportedly arrived in Israel in a bid to jump-start stalled negotiations.
The signs of fresh truce talks came alongside ongoing Israeli preparations for a military push into Gaza’s southern city of Rafah and as spillover from the war led to continued attacks across the region.
“Today, the Hamas movement received the official Zionist occupation response to the movement’s position, which was delivered to the Egyptian and Qatari mediators on April 13,” Khalil al-hayya, deputy head of Hamas’s political arm in Gaza, said in a brief statement early yesterday.
“The movement will study this proposal, and upon completion of its study, it will submit its response.”
Hamas had previously insisted on a permanent ceasefire, which was rejected by Israel.
Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been unsuccessfully trying to seal a new truce deal in Gaza ever since a one-week halt to the fighting in November saw 80 Israeli hostages exchanged for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Several Israeli media outlets, citing unnamed officials, said Israel’s war cabinet had discussed a new plan for a truce and hostage release ahead of the Egyptian delegation’s visit.
There has been “noticeable progress in bringing the views of the Egyptian and Israeli delegations closer”, said Al-qahera News, which is linked to Egyptian state intelligence services.
The war in Gaza was also on the agenda for an international summit set to kick off in Saudi Arabia over the weekend.
The World Economic Forum special meeting, scheduled to begin in Riyadh today, will include a Gaza-focused session tomorrow set to feature newly-appointed Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Mustafa, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Sigrid Kaag, the United Nations aid coordinator for the Gaza Strip.
“Discussions with European, American and regional counterparts on Gaza and the regional situation are planned in Riyadh,” a diplomatic source said on Friday.
Witnesses in besieged Gaza reported fresh Israeli strikes overnight into yesterday around Rafah, the last urban centre Israeli ground forces have yet to enter.
Plans for an Israeli incursion into the city, which military leaders say is necessary to uproot Hamas battalions, have sparked opposition among the international community due to the presence of hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians seeking refuge there.
Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad said on Thursday that such an operation “will undoubtedly threaten the negotiations” and show “that Israel is interested in continuing the war”.
On Friday, missiles fired from an Israeli jet hit Gaza City, killing at least three people in the Rimal neighbourhood, an AFP reporter said.
“I was sitting selling cigarettes and suddenly a missile fell, shaking the whole area,” a witness who did not give his name said, adding that the bodies of a man, a woman and a little girl were pulled from the rubble.
Opposition to an Israeli military operation in Rafah extended to university campuses across the United States, where hundreds of students have been arrested at pro-palestinian protests.
“Stop the invasion! Hands off Rafah!” said a sign at a pro-palestinian encampment at George Washington University in the US capital.
Israel’s military offensive has turned vast swathes of Gaza into rubble, creating 37 million tonnes of debris that will take years to clear away, according to the UN Mine Action Service.
The World Food Programme has warned that famine is “a real and dangerous threat” in Gaza.
The European Union said on Friday that it was giving an extra Us$73mil (Rm349mil) in aid to Palestinians in Gaza “in light of the continued deterioration of the severe humanitarian crisis”.
The Gaza war has led to increased violence between Israel and Iran’s proxies and allies, in particular the Iran-backed fighter group Hezbollah along the border with Lebanon.
The Israeli army said on Friday that a civilian was killed by antitank missiles fired towards “the area of Har Dov”, which refers to the disputed Shebaa Farms border district. Also on Friday, Lebanese group Jamaa Islamiya said an Israeli strike in eastern Lebanon had killed two of its senior commanders.
In response to what it called a “cowardly assassination”, Hezbollah said it launched dozens of rockets at two military posts in northern Israel.
And in the Red Sea, a tanker was damaged when it was targeted with multiple missiles off Yemen’s coast on Friday, in the latest attack on international shipping in the Red Sea to be claimed by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.