Hamas gives ‘initial’ OK to Gaza truce plan

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES (AFP) – Fighting in Gaza dragged on yesterday with scores reported killed overnight, after mediator Qatar said Hamas had given its “initial” approval to a hostageprisoner exchange deal that would pause its war with Israel.

Hamas’s health ministry said 105 people were killed overnight from Thursday to yesterday, while the group’s press office reported raids and shelling around Khan Yunis – southern Gaza’s main city and the recent epicenter of hostilities.

Nearly four months of fighting have rendered Gaza “uninhabitable,” according to the UN, while an Israeli siege has led to dire shortages of food, water, fuel and medicines.

The humanitarian crisis, coupled with soaring civilian casualties, has spurred increasing international calls for a ceasefire.

Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman, Majed al-Ansari, said Thursday that recent talks in Paris between Qatari, US, Israeli and Egyptian officials had yielded a consolidated truce proposal.

“That proposal has been approved by the Israeli side and now we have an initial positive confirmation from the Hamas side,” Ansari said.

He added there were hopes of “good news” about a new pause in the fighting “in the next couple of weeks.”

But a source close to Hamas told AFP on Thursday: “There is no agreement on the framework of the agreement yet – the factions have important observations – and the Qatari statement is rushed and not true.”

A Hamas source had previously told AFP the three-stage plan would start with an initial six-week halt to the fighting that would see more aid deliveries into Gaza.

Only “women, children and sick men over 60” held by militants would be freed during that stage in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel, the source said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

There would also be “negotiations around the withdrawal of Israeli forces,” with possible additional phases involving more hostage-prisoner exchanges.

Visiting Khan Yunis on Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops that the local Hamas brigade had been “dismantled” and that the “same will happen in Rafah,” the southern border town where hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians have fled.

“(Hamas) don’t have weapons, they don’t have ammunition, they have 10,000 eliminated terrorists and another 10,000 terrorists who are wounded and not functioning. This is a serious blow that erodes Hamas’ abilities,” he said.