Hamas on Saturday said it received Israel’s official response to its latest ceasefire proposal and will study it before submitting its reply, news agency Reuters said, citing Khalil Al-Hayya, the group’s deputy Gaza chief.
“Hamas has received today the official response of the Zionist occupation to the proposal presented to the Egyptian and the Qatari mediators on April 13,” Khalil Al-Hayya said in a statement from Qatar.
The statement from Hamas comes after Israel said it is giving “last chance” for a truce agreement before it launches its offensive against Hamas in Rafah in southern Gaza Strip, now home to over a million internally displaced Palestinians, following talks between Israeli officials and a top-level Egyptian delegation.
“This is the last chance before we go into Rafah,” the official was quoted as saying by news agency Ynet.
Six months into the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, the negotiations remain deadlocked as Hamas sticks to its demand that any agreement must seek to end the war.
Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been unsuccessfully trying to seal a new truce deal in Gaza ever since a one-week halt to the fighting in November saw 80 Israeli hostages exchanged for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
The war began with the unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,170 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,356 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Israel estimates that 129 hostages are still being held by Hamas in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.
Israeli officials said that they held “very good, focused” talks with their Egyptian counterparts and the discussions were “held in good spirits and progressed in all parameters”, according to a report by the Times of Israel.
The report citing Israeli officials also said that the Egyptian delegation signalled that they are willing to pressure Hamas toward reaching a deal.
Another official told Reuters that Israel had no new proposals to make, although it was willing to consider a limited truce in which 33 hostages would be released by Hamas, instead of the 40 previously under discussion.
The US along with 17 other countries appealed to Hamas to release all of its hostages and start ending the crisis.
“(We remain) open to any ideas or proposals that take into account the needs and rights of our people,” Hamas said in response to the joint statement while criticising the issuers of the statement for not calling for a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. It has also vowed not to relent to international pressure.
Israeli officials told news outlets there that “there are very serious intentions from Israel to move ahead in Rafah”.
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