Hamas says it is ready for Israeli response on Gaza ceasefire proposal

Hamas is ready for a response from Israel on its ceasefire proposal, two officers from the Palestinian group mentioned on Sunday, 5 days after it accepted a key a part of a U.S. plan aimed toward ending the nine-month-old battle in Gaza.

“Now we have left our response with the mediators and are ready to listen to the occupation’s response,” one of many two Hamas officers instructed Reuters, asking to not be recognized.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to carry consultations on Sunday on the subsequent steps in negotiating the three-phase plan that was introduced in Could by U.S. President Joe Biden and is being mediated by Qatar and Egypt.

It goals to finish the battle and free round 120 Israeli hostages being held by Hamas.

One other Palestinian official, with data of the ceasefire deliberations, mentioned Israel was in talks with the Qataris.

“They’ve mentioned with them Hamas’ response they usually promised to provide them Israel’s response inside days,” the official, who requested to not be recognized, instructed Reuters on Sunday.

Netanyahu has mentioned that negotiations would proceed this week however has not given any detailed timeline.

Hamas has dropped a key demand that Israel first decide to a everlasting ceasefire earlier than it might signal an settlement. As an alternative, it mentioned it might enable negotiations to realize that all through the six-week first part, a Hamas supply instructed Reuters on Saturday on situation of anonymity as a result of the talks are personal.

A Palestinian official near the peace efforts has mentioned the proposal may result in a framework settlement if embraced by Israel and would finish the battle.

U.S. Central Intelligence Company Director William Burns will journey to Qatar this week for negotiations, a supply accustomed to the matter mentioned.

The battle was triggered 9 months in the past on Oct. 7 when fighters led by Hamas, controlling Gaza, attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 folks and taking round 250 hostages, in response to Israeli figures.

Greater than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s army onslaught, in response to Gaza well being officers, and the coastal enclave has largely been decreased to rubble.

On Sunday, an Israeli airstrike killed Ehab Al-Ghussein, the Hamas-appointed deputy minister of labor, and three different folks at a church-run faculty in western Gaza Metropolis sheltering Christian and Muslim households, Hamas media and the Civil Emergency Service mentioned.

The Israeli army mentioned that after it took steps to reduce the danger of civilians being harmed there, it struck militants who had been hiding within the faculty, in addition to a facility within the neighborhood the place weapons had been being made.

Ghussein’s spouse and youngsters had been killed in an Israeli strike in Could.

The U.N. company for Palestinians, UNRWA, referred to as the scenario more and more tragic, saying in a submit on X, “households proceed to face pressured displacement, large destruction and fixed worry. Important provides are missing, the warmth is insufferable, illnesses are spreading”.

In Israel, protesters took to the streets throughout the nation to stress the federal government to conform to the Gaza ceasefire deal, which might deliver again 120 hostages nonetheless being held in Gaza.

They blocked rush hour visitors at main intersections throughout the nation, picketed politicians’ homes and briefly set fireplace to tires on the primary Tel Aviv-Jerusalem freeway earlier than police cleared the way in which.

In the meantime, preventing continued to rage throughout Gaza, and north Israel got here beneath rocket assault from Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Air raid sirens despatched residents of 24 Israeli cities working for shelter. One individual was critically wounded, police mentioned. Hezbollah mentioned it had fired rockets at a military base.

In Gaza, Palestinian well being officers mentioned a minimum of 15 folks had been killed in separate Israeli army strikes

An Israeli air strike on a home within the city of Zawayda, in central Gaza, killed a minimum of six folks and wounded a number of others, whereas six others had been killed in an air strike on a home in western Gaza, the well being officers mentioned.

Gaza’s well being ministry doesn’t distinguish between combatants and non-combatants however officers say a lot of the useless all through the battle have been civilians. Israel has misplaced 323 troopers in Gaza and says a minimum of a 3rd of the Palestinian useless are fighters.

In central and northern areas of Rafah, on the southern Gaza border with Egypt, Israeli tanks deepened their raids.

Well being officers there mentioned they’d recovered three our bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli fireplace within the japanese a part of the town.

The Israeli army mentioned on Sunday its forces had killed 30 Palestinian gunmen in Rafah throughout shut fight and air strikes previously day.

In Shejaia, an japanese suburb of Gaza Metropolis, the army mentioned its forces killed a number of Palestinian gunmen, and situated weapons and explosives. It revealed a drone video exhibiting gunmen, some showing to be wounded or useless, in a home.

Reuters couldn’t instantly confirm the video.

The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, an allied militant group, mentioned fighters attacked Israeli forces in a number of areas throughout the Gaza Strip with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs.