The Palestinian group Hamas says it is studying new proposals for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, but insisted it is seeking an agreement that would bring an end to Israel’s war.
Hamas said in a statement on Wednesday that it had received proposals from the mediators and is holding talks with them to “bridge gaps” to return to the negotiating table and try to reach a ceasefire agreement.
The group said it was aiming for an agreement that would end the Gaza war and ensure the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the enclave.
The announcement comes a day after United States President Donald Trump said Israel had agreed to a proposal for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and urged Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen. Trump has been increasing pressure on the Israeli government and Hamas to broker a ceasefire and an agreement for the group to release the Israeli captives held in Gaza.
Trump said the 60-day period would be used to work towards ending the war – something Israel says it will not accept until Hamas is defeated. Trump is due to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week.
But Hamas’s announcement, which emphasised its demand that the war end, raised questions about whether the latest offer could materialise into an actual pause in fighting.
Shortly after the Hamas statement, Netanyahu said “there will be no Hamas” in post-war Gaza.
Israeli officials have warned that the country’s military will escalate its operations in Gaza if ceasefire negotiations do not advance soon, according to the US-based Axios news outlet.
“We’ll do to Gaza City and the central camps what we did to Rafah. Everything will turn to dust,” the outlet quoted a senior Israeli official as saying. “It’s not our preferred option, but if there’s no movement towards a hostage deal, we won’t have any other choice.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said any opportunity to free captives held in Gaza should not be missed, adding that there is a lot of support, both in the cabinet and within the public at large, for the US-backed proposal.
The proposal, though, has not been publicly backed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Hospital director killed
In Gaza, Israeli forces killed at least 43 people on Wednesday, according to Palestinian health authorities. Hospital officials said four children and seven women were among the dead.
Among the victims was Dr Marwan al-Sultan, director of the Indonesian Hospital, who was killed in an Israeli strike on a residential building in an area southwest of Gaza City, according to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.
His wife and children were also killed in the attack.
Al-Sultan was a key source of information from Gaza, reporting on the conditions of Palestinians in the north of the besieged enclave. He had repeatedly called on the international community to press for medical teams’ safety, including when the Israeli army laid siege or struck the Indonesian Hospital, the largest medical facility north of Gaza City.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 56,647 people and wounded 134,105, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive.
The war has left the coastal Palestinian territory in ruins, with much of the urban landscape flattened in the fighting. More than 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million population has been displaced, often multiple times. The war has caused a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, pushing hundreds of thousands of people to famine-like conditions.
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