JERUSALEM, Apr 29: A Hamas delegation is due Monday in Egypt, where it will respond to Israel’s latest proposal for a long-sought truce in Gaza and hostage release after almost seven months of war.
Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to mediate an agreement between Israel and Hamas for months, but a flurry of diplomacy in recent days appeared to suggest a new push towards halting the fighting.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on his seventh visit to the region since the October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war, arrived Monday in Saudi Arabia and will also travel to Israel and neighbouring Jordan later this week, a State Department official said.
A senior Hamas official said Sunday that the Palestinian group had no “major issues” with the most recent truce plan.
“The atmosphere is positive unless there are new Israeli obstacles,” the official told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss the negotiations.
While Israel has pledged to go after Hamas battalions in Rafah despite mounting global concern for Palestinian civilians sheltering in the southern Gaza Strip city, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the government may “suspend” the invasion if an agreement is reached.
The war has brought besieged Gaza to the brink of famine, UN and humanitarian officials say, reduced much of the territory to rubble and raised fears of broader conflict.
An AFP correspondent, witnesses and rescuers reported air strikes overnight on Rafah, where the majority of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have sought refuge near the border with Egypt.
More strikes were reported in central Gaza.
At least 22 people were killed in Rafah, medics and the Civil Defence agency said Monday, with witnesses telling AFP at least three houses had been hit.
A Hamas source close to the negotiations had told AFP the group “is open to discussing the new proposal positively” and is keen for an agreement that “guarantees a permanent ceasefire, the free return of displaced people, an acceptable deal for (prisoner) exchange and ensuring an end to the siege” in Gaza.
In Israel, protesters have taken to the streets to urge the government to secure the freedom of the 129 hostages who remain in Gaza since being seized by militants on October 7, including 34 the military says are dead.-TVS
