Israel-Gaza war: Israel studies new Hamas response to ceasefire proposal
Israel is studying a Hamas response to a proposal that would include a hostage release deal and ceasefire in Gaza, according to a statement from Israel’s Mossad spy agency.
“The mediators of the hostage deal have given the negotiating team Hamas’s response to the hostage deal outline. Israel is examining the response and will respond to the mediators,” said a statement released by prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office, on behalf of the agency.
Mr Netanyahu will on Thursday evening convene a meeting of his security cabinet to discuss proposals from Hamas, a source in his office told Reuters.
Mediators including Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying for months to secure a ceasefire and the release of 120 remaining hostages in Gaza, but their efforts have stalled.
About 90 per cent of the population of the Gaza Strip have been displaced at least once since the war between Israel and Hamas began, according to the UN’s humanitarian agency.
Andrea De Domenico, head of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Palestinian territories, said on Wednesday about 1.9 million people are thought to be displaced in Gaza.
More than 38,011 Palestinians have been killed and 87,445 have been injured in Israeli military offensive on Gaza since October 7th, the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
Elsewhere, Israeli strikes killed one of Hizbullah’s top commanders in south Lebanon on Wednesday, prompting retaliatory rocket fire by the Iran-backed group into Israel.
Hizbullah said it fired more than 200 rockets at several military bases in Israel in retaliation over a strike that killed the commander.
The Israeli military said it had struck and eliminated Hizbullah’s Mohammed Nasser. He was the one of the most senior Hizbullah commanders to die yet in the conflict, security sources in Lebanon said.
Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant said the country will reach a state of full readiness to take any action required in Lebanon. He said Israel would prefer to reach a negotiated agreement, but if not, the country is prepared to fight.
Israeli forces killed five Palestinians in two military operations in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian and Israeli sources said on Wednesday.
A night-time air strike killed four men at a refugee camp near the town of Tulkarm, while another man was killed by Israeli fire in a separate Israeli operation in Jenin, the Palestinian health ministry said on Wednesday.
An Israeli military statement said forces “carried out a precise strike on the terrorist cell,” killing four militants. – Guardian
