Hamas says Israel’s new ceasefire proposal falls short of its demands. (document)
Hamas said on Tuesday that an Israeli proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza war did not meet any of the Palestinian group’s demands but that it would further study the proposal and respond to mediators.
The proposal was made to the Palestinian Islamist movement during talks between Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo to find a way out of the devastating war in the Gaza Strip, which is now entering its seventh month.
Israeli forces continued airstrikes on Tuesday in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and Rafah on the southern edge of the enclave, residents said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly floated plans for a ground attack on Rafah, where more than a million displaced civilians remain holed up despite international calls for restraint.
CIA Director William Burns also participated in the talks in Cairo, but so far they have been unable to achieve a breakthrough on an armistice.
Hamas said in a statement that Israel’s new ceasefire proposal failed to meet its demands.
“The movement (Hamas) is interested in reaching an agreement to end the aggression against our people. Despite this, Israel’s position remains intransigent and does not meet any of the demands of our people and the resistance movement,” Hamas said.
However, it said it would further review the proposal and return a response to the mediator.
Hamas wants any deal that would ensure an end to Israel’s military offensive, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and allow displaced people to return to their homes in the small, densely populated enclave.
Israel wants to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas in a cross-border rampage that sparked conflict on Oct. 7 and remove the military threat from Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007.
It says it is eager to reach a prisoner-for-hostage deal that would see some Palestinians held in its prisons released in exchange for hostages in Gaza, but it is not yet ready to end its military campaign.
Rafa Invasion
Israel says Rafah, a city in southern Gaza on the border with Egypt, is the last stronghold of Hamas combat forces in the area.
The city is also the last refuge for a large number of civilians – almost half of Gaza’s population – who have been uprooted by Israel’s relentless bombardment that has leveled their homes in the northern part of the area.
They crowded into Rafah in desperate conditions, lacking food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organizations urged Israel not to attack the city for fear of triggering a bloodbath.
Israeli media reported on Tuesday that the Israeli Defense Ministry would purchase 40,000 tents before evacuating the city, one of the first signs of concrete preparations for a ground attack.
Netanyahu said Israel’s goal was to free the hostages and ensure a complete victory over Hamas. On October 7, Hamas seized 253 hostages, of which 133 are still being held. Negotiators said about 40 people would be released in the first phase of the deal.
According to Israeli statistics, Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in southern Israel in a lightning attack on October 7.
Some 33,360 Palestinians have been killed in the six-month conflict, Gaza’s health ministry said in an update on Tuesday. Most of the enclave’s 2.3 million people are homeless and many are at risk of famine.
Palestinian emergency teams, backed by international organizations, carried out searches at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and the destroyed city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza after Israeli troops withdrew after months of fighting.
Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the Hamas-run Gaza Civil Emergency Service, said so far the working group had found the bodies of 409 Palestinians killed in and around the hospital and in Khan Younis. Israel says Shifa is being used as a base for militants, something Hamas denies.
Israel continues to exert military pressure
On the front line, an Israeli airstrike on a municipal building in the Magazi camp in central Gaza killed the council’s chairman, Hatem Ghamri, and four other civilians, the Hamas-run government media office and medics said.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it had eliminated Ghamri, describing him as a Hamas military operative in Magazi Camp who was involved in rocket launches against Israel.
Hamas media said an Israeli airstrike on a house in Deir al-Balah killed one Palestinian and injured 20 others.
In Rafah, a missile fired from a drone killed one man and wounded several others, they said.
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