Hamas is seeking guarantees that a new US-backed ceasefire proposal for Gaza would lead to the war’s end, a source close to the group said yesterday, as medics said Israeli strikes across the territory had killed 59 more people.
Israeli officials said prospects for reaching a ceasefire and hostage deal appeared high, nearly 21 months since the war between Israel and Hamas began.
Efforts for a Gaza truce gathered steam after the United States secured a ceasefire to end a 12-day aerial conflict between Israel and Iran, but on the ground in Gaza intensified Israeli strikes continued unabated, killing at least 59 people yesterday, according to health authorities in the territory.
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said that Israel had accepted the conditions needed to finalise a 60-day ceasefire with Hamas, during which the parties will work to end the war.
Hamas is seeking clear guarantees that the ceasefire will eventually lead to the war’s end, the source close to the group said. Two Israeli officials said those details were still being worked out.
Egyptian and Qatari mediators have been working to secure US and international guarantees that talks on ending the war would continue as a way of convincing Hamas to accept a two-month truce proposal, Egyptian security sources said.
A senior Israeli official close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said preparations were in place to approve a ceasefire deal. A separate source familiar with the matter said that Israel was expecting Hamas’ response today and that if it was positive, an Israeli delegation would join indirect talks to cement the deal.
The proposal includes the staggered release of 10 living Israeli hostages and the return of the bodies of 18 more in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, an official familiar with the negotiations said. Of the 50 remaining hostages in Gaza, 20 are believed to still be alive.
Aid would enter Gaza immediately, and the Israeli military would carry out a phased withdrawal from parts of the enclave, according to the proposal. Negotiations would immediately start on a permanent ceasefire.
“We sure hope it’s a done deal, but I think it’s all going to be what Hamas is willing to accept,” US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told Israel’s Channel 12. “One thing is clear: The president wants it to be over. The prime minister wants it to be over. The American people, the Israeli people, want it to be over.”
Huckabee added that he would be taking part in talks next week at the White House, when Netanyahu is due to meet Trump.
In Gaza, there was no sign of immediate relief. According to medics at Nasser Hospital, at least 20 people were killed by Israeli fire en route to an aid distribution site.
Further north, at least 17 people were killed in an Israeli strike at a school in Gaza City, according to medics.
“Suddenly, we found the tent collapsing over us and a fire burning. We don’t know what happened,” one witness, Wafaa Al Arqan, who was among the people sheltering there, told Reuters. “What can we do? Is it fair that all these children burned?”
Israel’s military assault has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, while displacing most of the population of more than 2 million and triggering widespread hunger.
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