GAZA STRIP: Fighting in Gaza raged on Friday with scores reported killed overnight, after mediator Qatar said Hamas had given its “initial” support to a hostage-prisoner exchange deal that would pause its war with Israel.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said 105 people were killed overnight, while the Hamas press office reported Israeli air and artillery bombardment around Khan Yunis—southern Gaza’s main city and the focus of recent fighting.
Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll is at 27,131.
Gaza City resident Abir al-Madhun said leaflets calling on civilians to leave had again been dropped by Israeli aircraft over the Al-Shifa Hospital compound where she has sought refuge.
SPONSORED CONTENT Mengalum for world’s first net zero carbon island resort Taiwan’s Sinyi Group is on track to unveil the world’s first unique net zero carbon island resort on Mengalum Island. . Read more Nearly four months of fighting have left Gaza “uninhabitable”, the United Nations says, while an Israeli siege has resulted in dire shortages of food, water, fuel and medicines.
The humanitarian crisis and the mounting civilian death toll have triggered growing international calls for a ceasefire.
After a truce proposal agreed with Israeli negotiators was presented to Hamas on Thursday, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said there were hopes of “good news” about a fresh pause to the fighting “in the next couple of weeks”.
Ansari said a truce plan thrashed out with Israeli negotiators by Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators in Paris earlier this week had received a “positive” initial response from Hamas.
“That proposal has been approved by the Israeli side and now we have an initial positive confirmation from the Hamas side,” he said.
But a source close to Hamas told AFP: “There is no agreement on the framework of the agreement yet—the factions have important observations—and the Qatari statement is rushed and not true.”
A Hamas source said the group had been presented with a three-stage plan which would start with an initial six-week halt to the fighting that would see more aid deliveries into Gaza.
The pause would also see the release of “women, children and sick men over 60” among the Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel, the source said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.
There would also be “negotiations around the withdrawal of Israeli forces”, with possible additional phases involving more prisoner exchanges.
Visiting Khan Yunis on Thursday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told troops that the city’s Hamas brigade had been “dismantled” and the “same will happen in Rafah”, the border town where hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians have sought refuge.
Gallant reiterated the government’s position that only military force can secure the release of Israeli hostages, telling troops their operations “bring us closer to enabling the return of the hostages, because Hamas only responds to pressure”.
The government’s tough line has faced mounting opposition inside Israel, with protesters gathering again in Tel Aviv on Thursday night carrying placards featuring hostages’ faces and slogans such as “No more bloodshed”.
The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on four Israeli settlers over the violence, in a rare US move against Israelis. Any assets they hold in the United States will be blocked, with Americans forbidden from financial transactions with them.
“The situation in the West Bank—in particular high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction—has reached intolerable levels,” President Joe Biden said in an executive order laying the groundwork for US actions.
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