Israel suggests break in fighting

MEDIATORS: HOSTAGE EXCHANGE DEAL FLOATED

Plan involves fewer Israeli troops being in Gaza.

Israel has proposed to Hamas – via Qatari and Egyptian mediators – a pause in fighting of up to two months as part of a deal to free all the hostages being held in Gaza, the US news site, Axios, reported on Monday.

The report, citing unnamed Israeli officials, said the deal would take place in multiple stages. The first would see the release of women, men over 60 and those in critical medical condition.

Subsequent phases would involve the release of women soldiers, younger civilian men, male soldiers and the bodies of dead hostages. The officials said the deal would also see the release of an as yet undetermined number of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israel, but not all of them.

The proposal does not include promises to end the war, but it would involve Israeli troops reducing their presence in major cities in Gaza. The deal was expected to take around two months to implement.

Meanwhile, combat raged in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said that Israeli forces had targeted its headquarters in Khan Yunis “with artillery shelling on the fourth floor, coinciding with intense gunfire from Israeli drones, resulting in injuries among displaced individuals on our premises”.

The UN humanitarian agency OCHA reported that “ground operations, fighting and attacks intensified” over the preceding day around the main southern city, with the Israeli army saying its forces had conducted multiple raids and taken control of Hamas command centres there.

UN agencies and aid groups have sounded the alarm about the growing threat of disease and famine in Gaza, where 1.7 million people are estimated to have been displaced from their homes.

Israeli outlet Ynet also reported on the proposal, citing unnamed sources, and said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had alluded to it in a meeting with hostages’ families on Monday.

News of the proposal comes as US media said the White House’s coordinator for the Middle East, Brett McGurk, was due in the region for meetings in Egypt and Qatar aimed at securing a new hostage exchange deal. About 132 hostages remain in Gaza. –