Hamas is reviewing an Israeli proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza, as Rafah offensive looms
Hamas said Saturday that it was reviewing a new Israeli proposal for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, as Egypt intensified efforts to broker a deal to end the months-long war and stave off a planned Israeli ground offensive in the southern city of Rafah.
Senior Hamas official Khalil al Hayya gave no details of Israel’s offer but said it came in response to a proposal from Hamas two weeks ago. Negotiations this month centered on a six-week cease-fire proposal and freeing 40 civilian and sick hostages in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails.
A separate Hamas statement said leaders from the three main militant groups active in Gaza discussed attempts to end the war. It didn’t mention the Israeli proposal.
The statements came hours after a high-level Egyptian delegation ended a visit to Israel, where it discussed a “new vision” for a prolonged cease-fire in Gaza, according to an Egyptian official who spoke on condition of anonymity to freely discuss the developments.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether Israel’s new proposal was directly related to the visit.
The discussions between Egyptian and Israeli officials focused on the first stage of a multi-phase plan that would include a limited exchange of hostages held by Hamas for imprisoned Palestinians and the return of a significant number of displaced Palestinians to their homes in northern Gaza, “with minimum restrictions,” the Egyptian official said.
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Mediators are working on a compromise that will answer most of both parties’ main demands, which could pave the way to continued negotiations with the goal of a larger deal to end the war, the official said.
Hamas has said it won’t back down from demands for a permanent cease-fire and full withdrawal of Israeli troops. Israel has rejected both demands and said it will continue military operations until Hamas is defeated and will retain a security presence in Gaza.
There is growing international pressure for Hamas and Israel to reach an agreement on a cease-fire and avert an Israeli attack on Rafah, on the border of Egypt, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have sought refuge after fleeing fighting elsewhere.
Israel has insisted for months that it plans a ground offensive in Rafah, where it says many Hamas militants remain, despite calls for restraint from the international community, including its staunchest ally, the United States.
Egypt has cautioned that an offensive in Rafah could have “catastrophic consequences” on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where famine is feared, as well as on regional peace and security.
The Israeli military has amassed dozens of tanks and armored vehicles in the south of the country, close to Rafah, and has hit locations in the city in near-daily airstrikes.
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Early Saturday, an Israeli airstrike hit a house in Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighborhood, killing a couple and their sons, ages 12, 10 and 8, according to records of the Abu Yousef al Najjar hospital’s morgue. A neighbor’s 4-month-old girl was also killed, the records showed.
Ahmed Omar said he and others rushed into the house after the 1:30 a.m. strike to look for survivors but found only bodies and body parts.
“It’s a tragedy,” he said.
An Israeli airstrike later Saturday on a building in Rafah killed seven, including six members of the Ashour family, according to the morgue.
Five people were killed in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza overnight when an Israeli strike hit a house, according to officials at the Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Elsewhere, Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinian men at a checkpoint in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the military said. It said the men had opened fire at troops stationed at the Salem checkpoint near the Palestinian city of Jenin.
Palestinians in Jenin refugee camp, a center of West Bank resistance, say repeated Israeli raids appear intended to make their city as uninhabitable as Gaza.
Violence in the West Bank has flared since the war started in Gaza. Israeli fire in the West Bank has killed 491 Palestinians, according to the Ramallah-based Health Ministry.
Washington has been critical of Israeli policies in the West Bank, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, who is expected in Israel on Tuesday, recently determined that an army unit committed rights abuses there before the war began in Gaza.
But Blinken said in an undated letter to U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), obtained Friday by the Associated Press, that he’s postponing a decision on blocking aid to the unit to give Israel time to right the wrongdoing. Blinken stressed that overall American military support for Israel’s defense wouldn’t be affected.
Blinken says the U.S. found that an Israeli military unit committed gross human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank before the Gaza war.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has been building a pier to deliver aid to Gaza through a new port, which an official said last week was on track to start operating by early May.
The BBC reported Saturday that the U.K. government was considering deploying troops to drive the trucks that would carry the aid to shore, citing unidentified government sources. British officials declined to comment on the report.
Another aid effort, a three-ship flotilla from Turkey, was prevented from sailing, organizers said.
A relative says a premature Palestinian infant, who was rescued from her mother’s womb shortly after the woman was killed in an Israeli airstrike, has died.
Student protests over the war have emerged on a growing number of college campuses in the U.S., while demonstrations continue in many countries.
The war started with Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, in which about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and and nearly 250 taken hostage. Israel says the militants still hold about 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30.
Hamas on Saturday released a video showing hostages Keith Siegel and Omri Miran. It wasn’t clear when the video was made. Both referred to the Jewish holiday of Passover, which began Monday, and called on Israel’s government to reach a deal with Hamas. They almost certainly spoke under duress.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s air and ground attacks, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. Around two-thirds of them were children and women, according to the ministry, whose count doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. The ministry said Saturday that 32 people killed in Israeli strikes had been brought to local hospitals over the previous 24 hours.
Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties, accusing it of embedding in residential areas. Israel has reported at least 260 soldiers killed since the start of ground operations.
Associated Press writer Magdy reported from Cairo and Rising from Bangkok. AP writers Jack Jeffery in Jerusalem and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.
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