Hamas accepts new truce proposal but Israel holds back from agreement
Qatar expressed guarded optimism, noting the latest proposal was 'almost identical' to an earlier version agreed to by Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to publicly comment on the plan, but said last week that his country would accept 'an agreement in which all the hostages are released at once and according to our conditions for ending the war'.
A senior Israeli official said yesterday the government stood firm on its call for the release of all hostages in any future Gaza ceasefire deal, after Hamas accepted a new truce proposal.
The official told AFP the government's stance had not changed and demanded the release of all hostages in any deal.
Israel and Hamas have held on-and-off indirect negotiations throughout the war, resulting in two short temporary truces, but they have ultimately failed to broker a lasting ceasefire.
Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have mediated the frequent rounds of shuttle diplomacy.
Egypt said on Monday that it and Qatar had sent the new proposal to Israel, adding 'the ball is now in its court'.
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Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said that Hamas had given a 'very positive response, and it truly was almost identical to what the Israeli side had previously agreed to'.
'We cannot make any claims that a breakthrough has been made. But we do believe it is a positive point,' he added.
According to a report in Egyptian state-linked outlet Al-Qahera News, the latest deal proposes an initial 60-day truce, a partial hostage release, the freeing of some Palestinian prisoners and provisions allowing for the entry of aid.
Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi said on social media that his group had 'opened the door wide to the possibility of reaching an agreement, but the question remains whether Netanyahu will once again close it, as he has done in the past'.
In Gaza, the civil defence agency reported Israeli strikes and fire killed 48 people across the territory yesterday.
Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP the situation was 'very dangerous and unbearable' in the Zeitoun and Sabra neighbourhoods of Gaza City, where he said 'artillery shelling continues intermittently'.
In the Zikim area of northern Gaza on Tuesday, an AFP journalist saw Palestinians hauling sacks of food aid along dusty roads lined with rubble and damaged buildings.
Gazan Shawg Al-Badri said it took 'three to four hours' to carry flour, what she called 'white gold', back to her family's tent.
'This bag is worth the whole world,' she said.
© AFP 2025
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