Israel-Hamas ceasefire proposal fuels Gaza battle

Speaking at a press conference with his Spanish counterpart, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said: “Hamas’ initial statements indicate that it received the proposed agreement in a positive manner, and we await the Israeli response. »

The proposal has divided public opinion in Israel, where more than 100,000 people took to the streets of Tel Aviv last weekend in support of the deal, demanding that the Israeli government accept it in order to speed up the release of hostages held in Gaza.

However, the proposal also sparked the ire of members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition, who threatened to overthrow the government if the deal was accepted.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid, however, said he would support Netanyahu’s government to prevent it from collapsing if it accepted the deal.

“The Israeli government must accept Netanyahu’s proposal and send a delegation to Cairo today to finalize the details,” he said. “I reiterate my offer to give Netanyahu a political safety net to complete the deal. »

The Americans said the proposal was originally presented by Israel and included a six-week halt to fighting, during which hostages taken from Israel during the Hamas blitz on October 7 would be released in stages in exchange for hundreds Palestinian prisoners. There would also be a significant increase in aid shipments authorized to the Gaza Strip, where aid organizations have warned that a humanitarian crisis is underway.

UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, said Monday that more than a million Palestinians have fled Rafah since Israeli ground operations began last month, with most taking refuge in the city’s ruins. from Khan Younis. “The conditions are indescribable,” the agency said on X.

The main point of contention regarding this and previous proposals, however, remains the question of how and when the war will officially end. Israel insists on the complete destruction of Hamas.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Netanyahu’s rival within his own party, spoke with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday evening and said Israel was considering creating an alternative to Hamas to rule Gaza .

“Offering a government alternative to Hamas will help bring it home,” he said in a statement released by the Defense Ministry. He told Blinken that the security establishment was promoting measures aimed at dismantling Hamas’s role as the governing and military authority in Gaza and allowing the establishment of an alternative power that would overthrow the Hamas regime and would exert pressure to return the hostages.

Hamas responded to Biden’s speech Friday, saying it viewed the agreement positively but that its willingness to engage was “based on a permanent ceasefire” and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza strip.

Netanyahu has been under competing pressures for weeks: Among those favoring a deal are moderate members of his war cabinet and the families of the hostages. On the other side are more extremist partners in his coalition, who argue that “absolute victory” must be achieved in Gaza. Biden’s public announcement of the ceasefire proposal stoked these tensions.

Maldives to ban entry to country for Israeli passport holders, the president’s office announced Monday, following a cabinet recommendation. The president will appoint a special envoy “to assess the needs of the Palestinians” and set up a fundraising campaign to “help our brothers and sisters in Palestine” with the help of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which helps Palestinian refugees.

The Israeli military said it had identified the body of Dolev Yehud, 35, a rescue worker who left his home on October 7 “in an attempt to save lives.” His body was found on Kibbutz Nir Oz and his family was informed after it was identified by medical authorities. The prime minister’s office said the number of hostages still held in Gaza was updated to 124, including four hostages dating from 2014.

At least 20 people were killed in three nighttime strikes that hit the central and southern Gaza Strip., declared the spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defense. The Israeli army said on Monday that it was continuing its operations in Rafah and the central Gaza Strip.

At least 36,479 people have been killed and 82,777 injured in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry., which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but asserts that the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates that around 1,200 people were killed in the October 7 Hamas attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and says 287 soldiers have been killed since its military operations in Gaza began.

Heba Farouk Mahfouz in Cairo, Shira Rubin, Lior Soroka and Alon Rom contributed to this report.