Palestinians sit at the rubble of a residential building destroyed by Israeli strikes, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the northern Gaza Strip, April 22, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Hamas said it had received on April 27 Israel’s official response to its latest ceasefire proposal and will study it before submitting its reply, the group’s deputy Gaza chief said in a statement.
“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, who is currently based in Qatar, said in a statement published by the group.
After more than six months of war with Israel in Gaza, the negotiations remain deadlocked, with Hamas sticking to its demands that any agreement must end the war.
Israel has no new proposal
An Egyptian delegation visited Israel for discussion with Israeli officials on April 26, looking for a way to restart talks to end the conflict and return remaining hostages taken when Hamas fighters stormed into Israeli towns on October 7, an official briefed on the meetings said.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said 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.
On April 25, the United States and 17 other countries appealed to Hamas to release all of its hostages as a pathway to end the crisis.
Hamas has vowed not to relent to international pressure, but it said in a statement it issued on April 26 it was “open to any ideas or proposals that take into account “the needs and rights of our people”. However, it stuck to its key demands that Israel has rejected and criticised the joint statement issued by the U.S. and others for not calling for a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on April 26 he saw fresh momentum in talks to end the war and return the remaining hostages.
‘One last chance’ to reach a deal
Citing two Israeli officials, Axios reported that Israel told the Egyptian mediators on Friday that it was ready to give hostage negotiations “one last chance” to reach a deal with Hamas before moving forward with an invasion of Rafah, the last refuge for around a million Palestinians who fled Israeli forces further north in Gaza earlier in the war.
Meanwhile, in Rafah, Palestinian health officials said an Israeli air strike on a house killed at least five people and wounded others.
Hamas fighters stormed into Israeli towns on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing 253 hostages. Israel has sworn to annihilate Hamas in an onslaught that has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians.
