In a video issued by his office, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “I, like you, hear the reports in the media, and from them you can get one impression – Hamas is under immense pressure.”
The Egyptian official source stated that the proposal accepted by Hamas included a suspension of Israeli military operations for 60 days and outlined a framework for a comprehensive deal to end the nearly two-year-old conflict.
Palestinians struggle to collect humanitarian aid airdropped by parachutes into Gaza City.Credit: AP
A source familiar with the negotiations said the proposal closely mirrored an earlier plan put forward by US special envoy Steve Witkoff, which Israel had accepted.
The mediators met Hamas representatives in Cairo on Sunday. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the Qatari prime minister, joined the discussions on Monday and met both Egyptian President el-Sisi and Hamas representatives, said an official briefed on the meetings.
Israel approved the plan to take control of Gaza City earlier this month, but officials had said it could take weeks to start, leaving the door open for a ceasefire, even though Netanyahu had said it would get under way “fairly quickly” and end the war with Hamas’ defeat.
Palestinians flee expected Gaza city attack
An Israeli armoured incursion into Gaza City could displace hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom have been uprooted multiple times during the war.
Patients rest on thin mattresses and improvised beds crowded into a makeshift ward at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.Credit: AP
Netanyahu has described Gaza City as Hamas’ last big urban bastion. But with Israel already holding 75 per cent of Gaza, the military has warned that expanding the offensive could endanger hostages still alive and draw troops into protracted and deadly guerrilla warfare.
Dani Miran, whose son Omri was taken hostage on October 7, said he feared the consequences of an Israeli ground offensive in Gaza City. “I’m scared that my son would be hurt,” he told Reuters in Tel Aviv on Monday.
In Gaza City, many Palestinians have also been calling for protests to demand an end to a war that has demolished much of the territory and for Hamas to intensify talks to avert the Israeli ground offensive.
Ahmed Mheisen, Palestinian shelter manager in Beit Lahiya, a war-devastated suburb abutting eastern Gaza City, said 995 families had departed the area in recent days for the south.
Ceasefire talks
The last round of indirect ceasefire talks ended in deadlock in late July with the sides trading blame for its collapse.
Israel has said it will agree to cease hostilities if all the hostages are released and Hamas lays down its arms – the latter demand publicly rejected by the Islamist group until a Palestinian state is established.
A Hamas official told Reuters earlier on Monday the group rejected Israeli demands to disarm or expel its leaders from Gaza.
Demonstrators gather during a protest demanding the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas and calling for the Israeli government to reverse its decision to take over Gaza City.Credit: AP
Sharp differences also appeared to remain over the extent of an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and how humanitarian aid will be delivered around the enclave, where malnutrition is rife and aid groups warn of unfolding famine.
US President Donald Trump wrote on his social media platform on Monday: “We will only see the return of the remaining hostages when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!! The sooner this takes place, the better the chances of success will be.”
Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1200, mostly civilians, in the attack that ignited the war.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll from the war had climbed to 62,004, with another 156,230 people wounded. It does not say how many were civilians or combatants, but says women and children make up around half the dead.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The UN and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties. Israel disputes its toll but has not provided its own.
The ministry said 1965 people have been killed while seeking humanitarian aid since May, either in the chaos around UN convoys or while heading to sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed American contractor.
Witnesses, health officials and the UN human rights office say Israeli forces have repeatedly fired toward crowds seeking aid. Israel says it has only fired warning shots at people who approached its forces. GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired into the air on rare occasions to prevent deadly crowding.
Reuters, AP
